“There’s plenty of time yet,” replied Owen, smiling at the boy’s impetuosity. “Nearly twenty minutes. We don’t want the window open all that time. It’s only a quarter to eight by our clock now, and that’s five minutes fast.”
However, so as to make quite certain that the train should not run past unnoticed, Frankie pulled up the blind and, rubbing the steam off the glass, took up his station at the window to watch for its coming, while Owen opened the letter:
“Dear Owen,
“Enclosed you will find two bank-notes, one for ten pounds and the other for five. The first I beg you will accept from me for yourself in the same spirit that I offer it, and as I would accept it from you if our positions were reversed. If I were in need, I know that you would willingly share with me whatever you had and I could not hurt you by refusing. The other note I want you to change tomorrow morning. Give three pounds of it to Mrs Linden and the remainder to Bert White’s mother.
“Wishing you all a happy Xmas and hoping to find you well and eager for the fray when I come back in the spring,
“Yours for the cause,
“George Barrington.”
Owen read it over two or three times before he could properly understand it and then, without a word of comment—for he could not have spoken at that moment to save his life—he passed it to Nora, who felt, as she read it in her turn, as if a great burden had been lifted from her heart. All the undefined terror of the future faded away as she thought of all this small piece of paper made possible.
Meanwhile, Frankie, at the window, was straining his eyes in the direction of the station.
“Don’t you think we’d better have the window open now, Dad?” he said at last as the clock struck eight. “The steam keeps coming on the glass as fast as I wipe it off and I can’t see out properly. I’m sure it’s nearly time now; p’raps our clock isn’t as fast as you think it is.”
“All right, we’ll have it open now, so as to be on the safe side,” said Owen as he stood up and raised the sash, and Nora, having wrapped the child up in a shawl, joined them at the window.