"Yes, I'll tell them. Are you sure you don't want any more papers?"
"We're a long time starting, aren't we?" said Ted.
"You're just off," Conrad answered.
It was less than a week since he had loitered on the other side, impatient for their arrival. He forced a smile, and stood bareheaded, and turned from the station with a sigh.
"'Oh near ones, dear ones! you in whose right hands
Our own rests calm; whose faithful hearts all day
Wide open wait till back from distant lands
Thought, the tired traveller, wends his homeward way!
Helpmates and hearthmates, gladdeners of gone years'——
Where are you?" said Conrad.
CHAPTER IV
He felt very lonely. Something of the Christmas spirit descended on him—the true, the unacknowledged Christmas spirit, in which, after we have directed the last stack of cards, and hurried out aglow with the last parcel, we sit before the bare mantel-piece, discovering that most of our acquaintances have become too advanced to observe the season. We are quite sure it is "advancement," though it looks a little like stinginess. He wondered, as he entered the lane, whether the other child he was remembering would have proved a disappointment too; wondered if the ache in his heart would be intelligible to her, or if he would appear to her absurd. It interested him to wonder. Conjecturing the disposition of the strange woman whose whereabouts he did not know, he endued her with many attributes that he admired, and she moved before his mental vision gradually as a fair and slightly pathetic figure, prepared to be his confidante. He fancied she was unhappy with her husband. At least the sadness of life had touched her enough to tinge her sentiment with cynicism, and she had flashes of wit on rainy days.
It surprised him that he had made no attempt to trace her; his curiosity was awake. Many things were more unlikely than that she was living in the town. As he passed Rose Villa he was in two minds about ringing the bell and trying to gather information from the present occupants. He would probably have obeyed the impulse, but while he hesitated the householder came out—a middle-aged little man, with a sanguine complexion, and gaiters.