After breakfast a carriage came to the door, and they drove back again to the station from which they had come last night. After a little waiting, the train started.
There were no other passengers in the carriage they occupied, and the lady and gentleman talked a great deal together. Elsie could not understand half that they said, but she heard them mention Edinburgh and London, and talk of hotels, and lodgings, and a great many other things, which gave her no information; but her heart beat wildly when they spoke of London, and she hoped above everything that they would take her there, for she had lost all count of the way by now, and would have had no more idea in which direction to go, had she been left to herself, than she would have had to find her way back to Dunster.
For a while the lady and gentleman were so engaged in talking together, that they took no notice of the children. Duncan had seated himself in a corner, and was leaning his head against the cushion with a strange expression on his face. Elsie, sitting opposite, glanced at him several times, as if to inquire what was the matter, but he took no notice. To go over and ask him was more than she dared. She was far more frightened to move a finger before this strange lady than she had been to disobey Mrs. MacDougall in the most flagrant way.
But suddenly the gentleman's eye fell upon Duncan, and he said sharply, "That child is ill, Lucy!"
"Nonsense!" said the lady, quickly. "He is putting it on. A good shaking will rouse him."
Elsie glanced uneasily at Duncan. He took no notice; his heavy eyelids were almost closed. It flashed upon Elsie that what the gentleman said was true, although she had not thought of it before.
"I think he is ill," Elsie said, plucking up her courage, for she thought it was cruel to talk of shaking him.
"Nonsense! He shall not be ill. Let him dare to!" the lady cried angrily.
"It strikes me that he won't be able to help it," the gentleman said, with an ugly smile, which seemed to make the lady very angry. "Well now, what's to be done? This is a look-out you had not bargained for."
The lady looked puzzled and very much annoyed. She bit her lip, and tapped her foot on the floor.