"Little better than two miles and a half," replied the porter.
"Two miles and a half—that means three miles," said the girl, and she looked inquiringly at the road and across the fields, over which the dying sun was sending a warm, rich crimson.
"Yes, miss. Will you have a fly? There is one outside," he added, with a touch of impatience, for it seemed highly improbable that more than twopence—at the most—could proceed from his present job, while sixpence or a shilling, no doubt, awaited him from the aristocratic young gentleman still lounging over the garden fence. The girl thought a moment; then, with the faintest flush, said:
"No, thank you. I will leave my luggage; there will be something, some cart——"
"Carrier's cart goes to the Court every evening!" broke in the porter, and, seizing the bag and the parcel, and dropping them in a corner with that sublime indifference to the safety of other people's goods which only a railway porter can adequately display, hurried off to the other passenger.
The young girl went with a light step down the station stairs, and having reached the road, stopped.
"How stupid of me!" she said. "I ought to have asked the way."
She was turning back to worry the porter once more when she saw a finger-post, upon which was written, "To Leyton Court," and, with a little sigh of relief, she went down the road indicated.
Meanwhile the porter had got the portmanteau, and stood awaiting the passenger's pleasure.
After a minute or two, and in the most leisurely fashion possible, the young man turned to him.