“Yes, he did; and he wa’n’t good for much either.”
To make an excuse for staying, Marion selected two or three cakes to be added to her rusks, with great deliberation, listening eagerly, for she saw the empty hack at the door and made sure this was the man who had taken Elfie and her captors from the station.
“How long is Warner’s company going to stay, do you s’pose?” asked the girl, cutting another pie in obedience to a sign from the man.
“That’s the funniest part,” said the driver. “They told me to come for them at half past one to-night, so they could take the two-o’clock train. I says to the fellow when he give me my fare, says I, ‘You make a short visit to your folks.’ ‘Yes, but the baby seems feverish, and we’ve got to get on to Sing Sing, so we can have our own doctor,’ says he. ‘All right,’ says I, ‘I’ll be back for you in time.’”
Marion needed to hear no more; so she paid her bill and walked out. She amused herself walking about the streets, and went into a dry-goods store and bought herself a small supply of collars and cuffs, a pair of gloves, a crochet needle, and some yarn and a little purse. She was too industrious by nature to feel happy without work, and so restless under the present circumstances that she thought some employment might help to keep her calm.
She went back to the station and occupied herself trying to recall the fan-pattern that Edna and Addie were crocheting for skirts. She succeeded very readily, and as the hours passed on she worked quite a long piece of pretty lace, and her interest in making it made the long time of waiting pass very comfortably.
When the late afternoon train passed she ran to the platform and eagerly gazed at the car-windows, thinking there was just a possibility of seeing some one from Coventry school.
But there was no one there, and she opened her parcel and ate her rusks and cake with a glass of water, and, getting a seat near the light, began her crocheting again. At half past nine the up freight came by, followed in half an hour by the passenger train from Troy. The station-master, who had looked curiously at Marion several times, then came and told her he was going to shut up the depot.
“O, dear!” she cried, “I was sure there was a train at two o’clock to-night.”
“So there is, and I come down and open the place ten minutes before it comes. You ought to have taken the eight-o’clock train if you wanted to go to Troy.”