For Diamond Jubilee was still faithfully waiting for them a few yards farther down the street. At the moment they came out he was contentedly munching a banana. If Emmeline’s acquaintance with him had been more intimate she might have suspected that it had been stolen from the fruit-store at the corner; as it was, this did not strike her, and her pleasure at seeing him still there, and so happily employed, was only spoilt by the fear lest, by too eager a greeting, he should betray them to Mary, who stood at the door affectionately watching them down the street. She need not have been afraid, however. A cool ‘Hello!’ which if Mary heard, she simply took for the casual salutation of a free-and-easy little stranger, was the only notice he vouchsafed them.
‘Walk a good way behind us,’ she managed to whisper as she passed him, and to her great relief he obeyed readily enough.
Another moment, and, with last waves of the hand to Mary, they had turned the corner. Emmeline breathed freely again, though she still thought it wise to walk a little in front of their adopted son, just in case they met any of their acquaintance.
On the way to the station Emmeline explained her plans to Micky and Kitty. ‘I’ve still got sixpence halfpenny left of my Fair money,’ she said ‘and I should think that would be enough to buy Diamond Jubilee a half-ticket to Chudstone.’
‘But Woodsleigh is our station,’ said Micky.
‘Well, we are going to get out at Chudstone this afternoon,’ said Emmeline; ‘for one thing, the half-ticket to Woodsleigh would cost a penny more than I’ve got, and for another thing, it wouldn’t be safe to take Diamond Jubilee through the village, where everybody knows us, and they would be sure to talk. Besides, our way home from Chudstone will lie through the wood, so we shall be able to take him to the Feudal Castle without going out of our way hardly at all. Of course, it will take us about a quarter of an hour longer than if we had come from Woodsleigh Station, but I chose the earlier train on purpose to allow for that.’
‘You are clever, Emmeline!’ exclaimed Kitty. ‘I should never have thought of all that.’
‘I’m four years older than you are, you see,’ said Emmeline modestly, though she was flattered by the compliment. ‘I think,’ she continued, ‘that it will be better if Diamond Jubilee travels in a separate compartment.’
‘Won’t he think it rather horrid of us?’ said Micky.
‘I don’t see why he should mind it any more than he does walking behind us now,’ said Emmeline, ‘and I’m sure it will be safer not to seem to belong to him. You never know whom you may meet in the train.’