“So I should imagine, but it’s a bright beautiful morning, and the birds are singing so gaily, I wish I could live in the country instead of London.”
“Ah, I dessay ye do, marm, but may be ye’d get tired of it after a bit.”
“I think not. Don’t you like it?”
“Ah, ah,” said the lad, with a loud guffaw, “I loike Lunnon. There beant any place loike Lunnon to my thinking.”
“Ah, well, it is of course all a matter of taste, and I suppose we most of us like any place better than the one we are in.”
Miss Stanbridge did not force the conversation beyond reasonable bounds, but she thought it quite as well to be on familiar and friendly terms with the farmer’s boy, who was as good-natured as he was unsophisticated; so they continued to chat familiarly until the station was reached.
Then alighting from the vehicle, she put half-a-crown in the lad’s hand, which seemed to have a marvellous effect on him.
At first he obstinately refused to accept the gratuity, but Laura was equally obstinate in forcing it upon him.
He was profuse in his thanks, and when he returned to the farmhouse he declared his fellow-passenger to be a perfect “leddy.”
Miss Stanbridge took a first-class ticket for London, and then went into the ladies’ waiting-room, where she remained till the train was upon the point of starting.