“Yes,” she said. “Your mother started us early. And so you have come to see us off, after all, Jack?”
“Just so,” he answered drily. “Let us go to Kate.”
They did so, the young lady meeting them halfway. “How kind of you to be here, Jack!” she said. “As you have come, will you look us out a comfortable compartment? That is the train over there. And please to put this, and this, and Daintry’s parcel in the corners for us.”
This and this were a cloak and a shawl, and a few little matters in brown paper. In order to possess himself of them, Jack handed Kate the papers he was carrying.
“Are they for me?” she said, gratefully indeed, but with a placid gratitude which was not perhaps what the donor wanted. “Oh, thank you. And this too? What is it?”
“‘Their Wedding Journey,’” said Jack, with a shy twinkle in his eyes.
“Is it pretty?” she answered dubiously. “It sounds silly; but you are supposed to be a judge. I think I should like ‘A Chance Acquaintance’ better, though.”
Of course the little book was changed, and Jack winced. But he had not time to think much about it, for he had to bustle away through the rising babel to secure seats for them in an empty compartment of the Oxford train, and see their luggage labelled and put in. This done, he hurried back, and pointed out to them the places he had taken. “Oh, dear, they are in a through carriage,” Kate said, stopping short and eyeing the board over the door.
“Yes,” he answered. “I thought that that was what you wanted.”
“No, I would rather go in another carriage, and change. We shall get to Claversham soon enough without travelling with Claversham people.”