The little girl gazed after his big tweed-clad figure as it disappeared in the crowd with a sinking heart and a quivering lip; then she obediently followed her aunts' maid, and having claimed her box, they passed out of the railway station, and entering the first cab at hand, were driven away.
[CHAPTER III]
MARIGOLD MAKES THE ACQUAINTANCE OF HER AUNTS
"MARY, you fidget me by continually getting up and going to the window to look-out. Pray curb your impatience."
Miss Pamela Holcroft spoke with considerable sharpness, and laid down her woolwork to look severely at her elder sister. A very handsome woman still, in spite of her sixty-five years, was Miss Pamela, tall and commanding in figure, with a clearly cut, colourless face, framed by snowy hair that was dressed high on the top of her head. Her eyes were large, dark, and piercing, and gave one the impression that they were always trying to find out people's weaknesses and bad qualities.
Miss Holcroft was quite an old woman, many years above seventy, in fact. She was shorter and stouter than her sister, and less dignified in manner. She wore her white hair in little corkscrew curls, her dark eyes were soft and gentle, and her countenance was set in good-tempered lines. At the present moment she was smiling brightly.
"I cannot help feeling impatient," she said, in answer to her sister's reproof, "and I know you are really as anxious to see the child as I am, though you do not acknowledge it. I should have liked to have gone to the station myself, but as you would send Barker—"
"Which was the wiser plan," Miss Pamela interposed. "You are so fussy, Mary!"
"Fussy!"
For a moment the elder lady looked indignant, but after a moment's reflection she smiled again.