“What’s the matter, grandfather?” asked Christopher a little impatiently. “I thought this train wasn’t going to stop again until we got to Hammersmith.”
The conductor, who was passing through the train, heard Christopher’s question and stopped obligingly to explain.
“We have to wait for the Mount Pleasant train here at the Junction, sonny,” he said. “It’s a bit late, but we won’t be delayed long. Them people,” he added to grandfather, pointing through the window to the group on the platform, “have been waiting for it ’most four hours. They’re a circus troupe.”
A circus troupe! A traveling circus—how interesting! Jane and Christopher pressed eagerly to the window and stared out at the small knot of people. There was nothing remarkable about them except that they all looked tired and a little anxious. Jane surveyed them thoughtfully.
“Poor people,” she said. “I’m sorry they have to stand there so long, waiting. They look tired. And there’s a baby—oh, Kit!” She grasped her brother suddenly by the sleeve, still peering out through the window. “Oh, Kit, it is, it is!” she exclaimed excitedly. “It’s Letty!”
“Who, the baby is?” asked Christopher contemptuously. “Do stop clawing me, Jane.”
“No, no, the girl holding the baby. Do look, Kit. Don’t you see her?”
Jane loosened her hold of Christopher’s sleeve to point out a child standing a little apart from the waiting group. The girl was dressed in a faded, clean frock of pink gingham and her glossy brown hair was smoothly brushed and braided. Her face was turned away from the children, but what they could see of it looked thin and sad. She carried a jolly, restless, heavy baby in her arms who was crowing and holding out its arms toward the locomotive. Christopher looked at the girl a moment in hesitation.
“I don’t believe it’s Letty. But it does look some like her,” he added doubtfully. “I wish she would turn around more so I could see her face better.”
As if in answer to his wish the little girl did turn just then and looked directly at the children. Perhaps she had felt the intentness of Jane’s earnest gaze. At sight of the twins her face suddenly brightened and she walked slowly down the platform toward the car in which they were sitting.