"I shall try to find someone who is going the whole way to Edinburgh, darling," Mums said, after one of those gaps. "Then I shall feel quite happy about you."
"I'll be all right anyway," Joey said determinedly.
"Yes, my Joey, I know you will; but everything, including the travelling, will be a little—new."
"I know Mums. Don't you worry; I shan't," Joey persisted, though the roofs of Pettalva were rather blurred just then. "I know it will be new, but I'm going to like Redlands awfully, and write you reams of letters, so you won't be dull—and—and"—Joey swallowed a lump in her throat—"there won't be such a heap of stockings for you to mend, anyhow."
They two were alone in the compartment; Mums caught Joey in her arms and held on to her tight. "Oh, my Joey, I like mending the stockings!" she cried, with a little sob in her voice, and then she tried to laugh.
"But I am going to love your letters, darling, and live in the interesting new world with you. Shan't we watch for the post, Kirsty and Bingo and I, and always be making excuses to go to the odd-and-end shop?"
Mums put away her handkerchief, and went on more in her ordinary voice:
"None of us have ever seen the fen country; you'll have to tell us all about it. And Cousin Greta said something about asking you out on a Sunday, now and then, and she has all kinds of beautiful things at her house that you will enjoy seeing."
Joey looked doubtful. Cousin Greta's infrequent calls at the old home had generally ended in disgrace for at least one member of the family. For Cousin Greta made no secret of the fact that she considered all the children a hopeless set of little raggamuffins, and somebody was certain to live down to her ideas. Lady Greta Sturt was Father's cousin and always spoke of the children as his only, though she put their faults down to poor Mums. She brought them the best chocolates when she came—such chocolates as were a rare and unaccustomed luxury even before the War—but the Grahams were not to be bought by chocolates, though it must be owned that they ate them with great speed and enjoyment. Joey wasn't sure that to be asked out by Cousin Greta would add to the joy of Redlands.
"You will be nice to her if she should ask you," Mums went on, in her soft, pleading voice. "She was very fond of Father and did a great many kind things for him when he was little, he always said."