would set the Sound on fire; and again he missed the companion of his
arrival.

After he had got his cup of tea, he stood sipping it with a homeless air
which he tried to conceal, and cast a furtive eye round the room till it
rested upon the laughing face of Miss Macroyd. A young man was taking
away her teacup, and Verrian at once went up and seized his place.

"How did you get here?" she asked, rather shamelessly, since she had kept
him from coming in the victoria, but amusingly, since she seemed to see
it as a joke, if she saw it at all.

"I walked," he answered.

"Truly?"

"No, not truly."

"But, truly, how did you? Because I sent the carriage back for you."

"That was very thoughtful of you. But I found a delightful public
vehicle behind the station, and I came in that. I'm so glad to know that
it wasn't Mrs. Westangle who had the trouble of sending the carriage back
for me."

Miss Macroyd laughed and laughed at his resentment. "But surely you met
it on the way? I gave the man a description of you. Didn't he stop for
you?"

"Oh yes, but I was too proud to change by that time. Or perhaps I hated