"My memory's almost gone, sir, for everything but this. Yet I think I should ha' remembered seeing Lily if she'd been here. No, sir; I haven't seen her; but that ain't saying she ain't been here. The nearest thing to it is the up-train from Epsom."
"The up-train from Epsom!" echoed Felix, not seeing the connection.
"It stopped here; and one of our porters got a shilling from a passenger for taking a letter to Miss Lizzie--Master Alfred's sweetheart, sir."
Felix gave a start, but knew that it would be cruel to detain Jim any longer from his wife and child. The last thing he saw before he left the station on his way to Old Wheels was Jim Podmore lifting Polly tenderly in his arms.
Old Wheels was waiting at the street door for Felix's return in a state of intense anxiety; and when he saw Felix coming along by himself, his anxiety was redoubled. Felix knew immediately, by the expression in the old man's face, that Lily had not come home.
"No news of Lily, sir?" he asked, as he drew the old man into the house.
"None, Felix. And you?"
"She has not been seen at the railway station."
It was necessary that he should tell Old Wheels of the accident caused by Jim Podmore; and he did so in as few words as possible.
"I am glad that little Polly is not seriously hurt," said Old Wheels--"very, very glad. But I am in dreadful anxiety about Lily."