Maradick seized Janet by the arm and dragged her back into the refreshment room. “Quick,” he said, “there isn’t a moment to lose—Tony’s father. You and Miss Minns must get in by yourselves; trust to luck!” In a moment she had grasped the situation. Her cheeks were a little flushed, but she gave him a hurried smile and then joined Miss Minns. Together they walked quietly down the platform and took their seats in a first-class carriage at the other end of the train. Janet was perfectly self-possessed as she passed Sir Richard. There was no question that this distinguished-looking gentleman must be Tony’s father, and she must have felt a very natural curiosity to see what he looked like; she gave him one sharp glance and then bent down in what was apparently an earnest conversation with Miss Minns.
Then Rupert saw Maradick. “Hullo! there’s Maradick!” He came forward slowly; but he smiled a little in a rather weary manner. He liked Maradick. “What a day! Yes, Truro had been awful! All sorts of dreadful people dripping wet!”
Yes, Maradick had been a tramp in the rain with Tony. Tony was just asking for a parcel that he was expecting; yes, they’d got very wet and were quite ready for tea! Ah! there was Tony.
Maradick gazed at him in agony as he came out of the ticket office. Would he give a start and flush with surprise when he saw them? Would he look round vaguely and wildly for Janet? Would he turn tail and flee?
But he did none of these things. He walked towards them as though the one thing that he had really expected to see, there on the platform, was his father. There was a little smile at the corners of his mouth and his eyes were shining especially brightly, but he sauntered quite casually down the platform, as though he hadn’t the least idea that the train was going off in another five minutes, and that Janet was close at hand somewhere and might appear at any moment.
“Hullo, governor! Rupert! Who’d have thought of seeing you here? I suppose the weather sent you back. Maradick and I have been getting pretty soaked out there on the hill. But one thing is that it sends you in to a fire with some relish. I’m after a rotten old parcel that Briggs was sending me—some books. He says it ought to have come, but I can’t get any news of it here. We’ll follow you up to the hotel to tea in a minute.”
But Rupert seemed inclined to stay and chat. “Oh! we’ll come on with you; we’re in no particular hurry, are we, governor? I say, that was a damned pretty girl that passed just now; girl in blue. Did you see her, Maradick?”
No, Maradick hadn’t seen her. In blue? No, he hadn’t noticed. The situation was beginning to get on his nerves. He was far more agitated than Tony. What were they to do? The guard was passing down the platform looking at tickets. Doors were beginning to be banged. A great many people were hurriedly giving a great many messages that had already been given a great many times before. What was to be done? To his excited fancy it almost seemed as though Sir Richard was perfectly aware of the whole business. He thought his silence saturnine; surely there was a malicious twinkle.
“Yes,” Rupert was saying, “there she was walking down Lemon Street, dontcher know, with her waterproof thing flapping behind her in the most absurd——” The doors were all banged; the guard looked down the line.
Suddenly Sir Richard moved. “I’m damned cold; wet things.” He nodded curtly to Maradick. “See you later, Mr. Maradick.”