MARGARET MAKES A FRIEND
But in making this arrangement the next morning, Mr. Anstruther, as did
the guard also, reckoned without the train being delayed for over an hour
when some fifteen miles from Carden Junction, and consequently missing
the connection with the Southern Express at the latter station.
"I am sorry to say, Miss, you will have to wait here for two hours
and a half," said the guard, as he helped the young lady who had been
given into his charge to alight. "I will carry your bag for you to the
waiting-room. It's a slow one, too, the next train, and don't get into
Seabourne until 7.10, whereas the express you have just missed would have
got you there at 3.45."
"I do not mind at all, thank you," said Margaret blithely, as she walked
down the platform beside him with light steps. "I really think it's great
fun missing a train, and having to wait for the next."
"Then, Miss, you're the first passenger I ever met who looked at it in
that way," said the guard in some astonishment. "Well, I must be going
on, for, as we're late already, we don't stop any time here. Good
morning, Miss, sorry I couldn't have done more for you, and put you in
charge of the next guard, as the gentleman asked. But you will be all
right in the waiting-room. Your train leaves at 2.17."
"Thank you," said Margaret. "I will not forget. Good morning."
She was delighted to see him go, and when the train steamed out of the
station, which it did a few minutes later, a sense of freedom, as novel
as it was delightful, took possession of her. For a few hours, at least,
she was absolutely her own mistress. There was no one to tell her to do
this, when she would rather have done the other, no one even to tell her
to remain where she was if she wished to go for a walk. And to go for a
walk was just what she intended to do. She certainly did not intend to
spend the next two hours in this stuffy little waiting-room, whose one
window commanded a view of nothing more exciting than the station yard.
She would go into the town and look at the shops.
It was true that the sky seemed rather overcast, but the clouds were
probably only passing ones, and the sun would shine out again in a few
minutes. Turning abruptly from the window she was hurrying towards the
door, when a voice close beside her remarked that she was leaving her bag
behind. Swinging round in amazement, for she had thought that she was
alone, she perceived that the room now contained another occupant who
must have entered it while she was staring out of the window. A girl of
about her own age was seated at the table with a couple of books and an
exercise book spread out before her, and as Margaret looked at her she
just pointed with her pencil at the dressing bag which the guard had
placed on a chair, and went on writing again immediately.
Margaret thought her one of the prettiest girls she ever seen, and though
that would have been saying a great deal less for her than Margaret
realised, for after all she had not seen many girls pretty or otherwise,
this girl was undoubtedly exceedingly good-looking. She had masses of
wavy chestnut hair, red-brown eyes, and a clear, pale skin.
Arrested thus suddenly on her way to the door by this unexpected remark,
Margaret halted rather awkwardly in the middle of the room uncertain what
to do about her bag.
"I am going for a walk into the town," she said shyly, "and my bag is too
heavy for me to carry with me. May I not leave it here?"
[Illustration: "I AM GOING FOR A WALK INTO THE TOWN," SHE SAID SHYLY.]
The girl raised her eyes again with some impatience. She had obviously
thought the incident closed, and she made reply as shortly as she
could that it was not usually considered safe to leave luggage in
waiting-rooms.
"Then what ought I to do with it, please?" said Margaret.
"Why, put it in the cloakroom of course," returned the other, and this
time her irritation at this continued interruption was so unmistakable
that Margaret, blushing crimson, grasped the unlucky bag and fairly fled
out of the waiting-room, without, as she contritely remarked afterwards,
a word of thanks or apology.
Having safely deposited the bag in the cloakroom, she set out for her
walk. As she passed the window of the waiting-room she could see the girl
she had left there sitting at the table turning the leaves of a book with
one hand and scribbling hurriedly with the other.
"She's looking up words in a dictionary," Margaret said to herself, who
knew the signs of the occupation only too well. "And that is what I shall
be doing to-morrow. But I am not going to think of that now."
The walk on the whole was not fraught with much enjoyment. Carden, though
a junction of some importance, was nothing much in the way of a town, the
streets near the station were narrow and crowded, the shops poor, and
Margaret was not sorry when her stroll was cut short by a few heavy drops
of rain. It would be much more interesting, she thought, to go back to
the waiting-room and look at the girl who was doing exercises there.
Perhaps, though on that point Margaret was not very hopeful, she might
even talk to her presently. So she hurried back and reached the shelter
of the station only just in time to escape a heavy shower.
The girl was still seated at the table, and she did not even raise her
head as Margaret entered. With a fresh access of shyness Margaret avoided
looking at her, but walking to the window stared out at the rain. But as
a shower was a phenomenon with which she was familiar, and the near
presence of another girl was not, Margaret very soon shifted her position
so that she could without turning her head, and unobserved as she
thought, study the girl at her leisure.
She was wearing a skirt of some rough frieze, and the colour, a sort of
dull turquoise, suited her admirably. A white cotton shirt with a collar
and tie completed her attire, while a short coat of the same material as
her skirt was flung carelessly over the back of her chair. As Margaret
looked at her she became absorbed in speculation as to who the girl might
be, and where she was going. Was she on her way home, or was she going to
stay with friends? Then Margaret fell to admiring the vivid colour of her
hair, which was full of lights and shades. Just above her ears and her
temples it shone like vivid gold, but the coils behind were of a deep,
rich chestnut colour, with an inclination to merge into gold at their
tips. Her eyebrows and eyelashes were just a couple of tones deeper than
the darkest shade of her hair, and Margaret felt glad of that as their
owner doubtless was also. She liked her nose, too--it was short and
straight.
"Do you think you will know me again?"
The girl had not raised her head or even lifted her eyes from the pages
of the dictionary she was fluttering with her left hand, while the other,
poised over the book, was held in readiness to pounce down on the right
page directly it came uppermost.
Margaret gave a great start as the nonchalantly uttered question broke
the silence of the room, and she looked round to see if there was any one
else present, for the question seemed to be addressed to no one in
particular, certainly not to her. And yet as there was no one else in the
room, of course the question must have been meant for her.
"Oh, yes, I am sure I shall," she answered in a tone of such pleased
conviction that the girl looked up and gave her a quick, puzzled glance.
But no one could meet Margaret's candid eyes and suspect her of wishing
to be rude, and after a moment's scrutiny the girl's frowning brows
relaxed and she smiled--such a merry, amused smile, that the last vestige
of Margaret's shyness disappeared on the spot.
"You see," she said, "you are the first girl I have ever spoken to in all
my life, and so, of course, I should always remember you."
"The first girl you have ever spoken to!" ejaculated the other, her eyes
opening to their fullest width. "Oh, come, I can't believe that."
"But you are, that is to say, the very, very first _real_ girl."
The emphasis Margaret laid on the word "real" did not at the moment
strike the other, who was now quite as interested in Margaret as the
latter was in her.
"Look here," she said, "I don't think I can do any more exercises at
present, though it seems wicked waste of time to be talking when I might
be learning something. But my poor brain has taken in all it can at
present, and I am willing to rest it awhile by talking to you. Come here
and sit down, and we'll talk."
"I have been desirous of talking to you some moments past," said
Margaret, flushing with pleasure at the suggestion. "But you looked so
busy that I did not venture to interrupt you."
An involuntary smile crossed the other girl's face as she listened to
Margaret's prim little way of speaking.
"I know, and I was rather cross about the bag, wasn't I? but I had just
got hold of the tail of a rather difficult sentence and it gave a wriggle
and vanished when you spoke. However, please don't look so dreadfully
sorry. I made a successful grab at it a few minutes afterwards. Now shall
we tell each other our names. Mine is Eleanor----"
She stopped short in amazement, for Margaret had sprung to her feet and
was gazing at her with eyes that fairly shone with excitement.
"Eleanor!" she cried, "Eleanor! Oh, no, not really and truly!"
"Why not? Don't you like the name?"
"Like it! Why, of course I am very, very fond of it. It is the name of
some one I love very much. I suppose your other name is not Humphreys, is
it? But it would be really too much if it were."
"It's not. Eleanor Kathleen Carson is my full name."
"Eleanor Kathleen Carson," repeated Margaret when her excitement had
calmed somewhat.
"It's a lovely name, though, of course, it ought by rights to have been
Eleanor Humphreys. I know now the reason why I liked you so much the
moment I saw you."
"Not the first moment," said Eleanor, with twinkling eyes. "You thought
me horrid the first moment you saw me, and scuttled from the room as hard
as you could."
"No, I liked you from the first," Margaret repeated firmly. "Only I was
shy. It was very stupid of me," she added, partly to herself, "to be shy
of you when your name was Eleanor all the time."
"And who is this Eleanor of whom you appear so fond?" demanded Miss
Carson. "To begin with, you tell me that I am the very first girl you
have ever spoken to, and then that you have a friend called Eleanor. Pray
explain the discrepancy in these statements."
But Margaret, looking at the laughing light in the curious red-brown eyes
bent upon her, shook her head.
"I believe you would laugh at the other Eleanor," she said, "so I don't
think I shall tell you. But I will tell you my name. It is Margaret
Anstruther."
"And where do you live, Margaret Anstruther?"
"At Clayton, in Flatshire, with my grandfather."
"And have you any brothers and sisters, Margaret Anstruther?"
"No."
"And no friends, you said?"
"No."
"Where were you educated, Margaret Anstruther?"
"At home, with a governess. Her name was Miss Bidwell. She went away
to Germany three months ago, because her eyes were causing her grave
trouble, and it may be necessary for her to have an operation."
"Since when you have been alone with your grandfather?"
"Yes."
"You seem to have led a very quiet life. Was your governess clever, and
were you an industrious child, and loved your lessons?"
"She was very clever, and I was very industrious," smiled Margaret, who
was thoroughly enjoying this string of half banteringly put questions.
"But I did not love my lessons."
"Lazy, Margaret Anstruther? Why not?"
"I do not know; I do not think I was lazy. Miss Bidwell would not have
permitted me to be so, but she made everything seem rather dull."
"What did that matter? You had a chance of learning things," said
Eleanor. The mocking note had gone from her voice, which had become very
earnest. "Apparently you had nothing to do all day long but learn, learn,
learn. Lucky, lucky girl, and yet you say everything seemed dull. Would
that I could have changed places with you sometimes."
"I am sure the arrangement would have pleased me also," said Margaret.
"But I do not think you would have liked it. As soon as Miss Bidwell
saw that I was growing too fond of one subject it was her habit to
discontinue my study of it, until she saw that my interest in it was less
strong."
"But what an extraordinary governess!" exclaimed Eleanor. "What on earth
made her behave like that?"
"My grandfather had given strict orders that I was not to be allowed to
become too absorbed in any particular study. He did not want me to
neglect one thing in favour of another."
"But just to take a nice, lukewarm, lady-like interest in all of them,"
said Eleanor. "I see. But please go on, and tell me some more about
yourself. Where are you off to now, and why?"
"I am going to a place called Windy Gap, near Chailfield. At least
Chailfield is the name of the station. Windy Gap is a little village four
or five miles off, and right on the top of the downs."
"And I am going to Seabourne, which is about three or four miles away
from Windy Gap, on the other side," said Eleanor. "How very funny!"
"I think it is very pleasant to hear that you are going to be so close
to me," said Margaret rather shyly. "Perhaps we shall see each other
sometimes."
Eleanor shook her head. "I, for one, shall have no time for visiting,"
she said, "as you will understand when it comes to my turn to tell you
about myself. But we will finish with you first. Why are you going to
Windy Gap?"
"My grandfather thought I was not very well, for one day he found me
talking in the wood to myself and wishing for all sorts of parties, and
so he sent for a doctor, who said I must go away for a long change; and
so grandfather wrote to Mrs. Murray, an old friend of his who lives at
Windy Gap, and asked her if she would have me on a visit."
"And didn't you nearly go off your head with delight when she said she
would?"
"No," said Margaret, with a little sigh, "for my mode of life there will
be very much the same as it has always been at home. Lessons all day
long, and no one to speak to."
"But there will be your hostess at least," said Eleanor encouragingly.
"Come, Margaret, do not despair."
"But she is deaf," said Margaret, in the same melancholy tone. "And I
believe she is also very severe. But," brightening, "I am not going to
think about her now, for I have got you to talk to for another hour.
It's just one o'clock, and my train does not go until seventeen minutes
past two."
"The 2.17 is my train too," said Eleanor. "But what do you say to having
lunch now. I am getting hungry."
She produced a little paper bag from the basket in which she carried her
books, and offered one of the two buns the bag contained to Margaret. But
the latter suddenly remembered that the housemaid Lizzie, in spite of the
confusion that had reigned in the kitchen regions since Mrs. Parkes had
been laid low, had found time to pack up an excellent little lunch for
her.
"It is in the bag you told me to put in the cloakroom," she said. "If you
do not mind very much, would you be so kind as to come and help me to get
it out. I do not like going there alone."
"What! are you shy?" said Eleanor, with considerable amusement, and
to herself she wondered why her grandfather had let such a very
inexperienced girl as this travel alone. But in spite of Margaret's
shyness Miss Carson felt quite interested in her new acquaintance. There
was a serious, old-fashioned air about her that made her unlike any other
girl that Miss Carson had ever met, and, as it was shortly to transpire,
she had known a great many, and was therefore competent to give an
opinion on that point. Margaret's very speech was different to that of
other girls. It was so slow and careful, and she appeared to phrase her
sentence with a deliberation that Miss Carson found both quaint and
pleasing. Decidedly, she thought, this chance acquaintance was worth
passing the next hour or so with, if only for the sake of the secret
amusement she was affording her, and so, at Margaret's timid request, she
rose willingly enough and accompanied her to the cloakroom. Then, having
recovered the bag, they returned to the waiting-room, which they were
glad to find was still unoccupied by any one else.
Inside the bag there was a tin biscuit-box, the contents of which, when
spread out on the table, made quite a tempting-looking lunch. There were
chicken and tongue sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs, covered jam puffs,
grapes, raisins, and almonds, and a bottle of delicious home-made
lemonade.
In her determination that Miss Margaret's holiday should begin pleasantly
with a good luncheon on the journey, Lizzie had put up enough for two
persons at least.
"Perhaps," said Margaret gleefully, when she had persuaded Eleanor to
abandon her buns and to share this sumptuous meal, "she knew that I
should meet a friend. Do you know," she added, "that this is the very
first picnic I have ever attended in my life, though I have read of them,
of course, in books."