Uncle Solomon, in his relief at Wilc.o.x"s information that morning, did not perceive any awkwardness in the encounter, but moved about and coughed noisily, as if anxious to attract his enemy"s attention. Mark felt considerably embarra.s.sed, dreading a scene; but he glanced as often as he dared at the lady of his thoughts, who was drawing on her gloves again with a dainty deliberation.

"G.o.dpapa," said the little girl, suddenly, "you never told me if Frisk had been good. Has he?"

"So good that he kept me awake thinking of him all night," said the old gentleman drily, without turning.

"Did he howl, G.o.dpapa? He does sometimes when he"s left out in the garden, you know."

"He did," said Mr. Humpage. "Oh, yes--he howled; he"s a clever dog at that."

"And you really _like_ him to?" said Dolly. "Some people don"t."

"Narrow-minded of "em, very," growled the old gentleman.

"Isn"t it?" said Dolly, innocently. "Well, I"m glad _you_ like it, G.o.dpapa, because now I shall bring him to see you again. When there"s a moon he can howl much louder. I"ll bring him when the next moon comes, shall I?"

"We"ll see, Chuckie, we"ll see. I shouldn"t like to keep him sitting up all night to howl on my account; it wouldn"t be good for his health. But the very next blue moon we have down in these parts, I"ll send up for him--I promise you that."

Dolly was evidently about to inquire searchingly into the nature of this local phenomenon, but before she could begin the old gentleman turned and saw that they were not alone.

"Mornin", Mr. "Umpage," said Uncle Solomon, clearing his throat; and Mark felt a pang of regret for the lost aspirate.

"Good morning to you, sir," said the other, distantly.

The elder girl returned the bow which Mark risked, though without giving any sign of remembrance; but Dolly remarked audibly, "Why, that"s the old man next door that gave your goose something to make it giddy, isn"t it, G.o.dpapa?"

"I hope," said Uncle Solomon, "that now you"ve had time to think over what "appened yesterday afternoon, you"ll see that you went too far in using the terms that fell from you, more particularly as the bird"s as well as ever, from what I hear this morning?"

"I don"t wish to reopen that affair at present," said the other, stiffly.

"Well, I"ve heard about enough of it, too; so if you"ll own you used language that was unwarrantable, I"m willing to say no more about it for my part."

"I"ve no doubt you are, Mr. Lightowler, but you must excuse me from entering into any conversation on the subject. I can"t dismiss it as lightly as you seem to do--and, in short, I don"t mean to discuss it here, sir."

"Very well, just as you please. I only meant to be neighbourly--but it don"t signify. I can keep myself _to_ myself as well as other parties, I daresay."

"Then have the goodness to do it, Mr. Lightowler. Mabel, the train is due now. Get your wraps and things and come along."

He walked fiercely past the indignant Uncle Solomon, followed by Mabel and Dolly, the former of whom seemed a little ashamed of Mr. Humpage"s behaviour, for she kept her eyes lowered as she pa.s.sed Mark, while Dolly looked up at him with childish curiosity.

"Confound these old fools!" thought Mark, angrily; "what do they want to squabble for in this ridiculous way? Why, if they had only been on decent terms, I might have been introduced to her--to Mabel--by this time; we might even have travelled up to town together."

"Regular old Tartar, that!" said his uncle, under his breath. "I believe he"ll try and have the law of me now. Let him--_I_ don"t care!

Here"s your train at last. You won"t be in by the time-table this morning with all this fog about."

Mark got into a compartment next to that in which Mr. Humpage had put Mabel and her sister; it was as near as he dared to venture. He could hear Mabel"s clear soft voice saying the usual last words at the carriage window, while Uncle Solomon was repeating his exhortations to study and abstinence from any "littery nonsense."

Then the train, after one or two false starts on the greasy rails, moved out, and Mark had a parting glimpse of the neighbours turning sharply round on the platform with an elaborate affectation of being utter strangers.

He had no paper to amuse him, for the station was not important enough for a bookstall, and there was nothing to be seen out of the windows, which were silvered with frozen moisture. He had the compartment to himself, and lay back looking up rather sentimentally at the bull"s-eye, through which he heard occasional s.n.a.t.c.hes of Dolly"s imperious treble.

"I know her name now," he thought, with a quite unreasonable joy--"Mabel. I shall remember that. I wonder if they are going all the way to town, and if I could offer to be of any use to them at King"s Cross? At all events, I shall see her once more then."

It was not a very long journey from Chigbourne to the terminus, but, as will be seen hereafter, it was destined to be a land mark in the lives of both Mark and Mabel, though the meeting he looked forward to at the end of it never took place.

CHAPTER VII.

IN THE FOG.

Mark was roused from his reverie in the railway carriage by the fact that the train, after slackening speed rather suddenly, had come to a dead standstill. "Surely we can"t be in already," he said to himself, wondering at the way in which his thoughts had outstripped the time.

But on looking out he found that he was mistaken--they were certainly not near the metropolis as yet, nor did they appear to have stopped at any station, though from the blank white fog which reigned all around, and drifted in curling wreaths through the window he had let down, it was difficult to make very sure of this.

Along the whole length of the train conversation, no longer drowned by the motion, rose and fell in a kind of drone, out of which occasional sc.r.a.ps of talk from the nearer carriages were more distinctly audible, until there came a general lull as each party gave way to the temptation of listening to the other--for the dullest talk has an extraordinary piquancy under these circ.u.mstances, either because the speakers, being unseen, appeal to our imagination, or because they do not suppose that they are being so generally overheard.

But by-and-by it seemed to be universally felt that the stoppage was an unusual one, and windows went down with a clatter along the carriages while heads were put out inquiringly. Every kind of voice demanded to be told where they were, and why they were stopping, and what the deuce the Company meant by it--inquiries met by a guard, who walked slowly along the line, with the diplomatic evasiveness which marks the official dislike to admit any possible hitch in the arrangements.

"Yes," he said, stolidly; "there might be a bit of a stoppage like; they"d be going on presently; he couldn"t say how long that would be; something had gone wrong with the engine; it was nothing serious; he didn"t exactly know what."

But he was met just under Mark"s window by the guard from the break at the end of the train, when a hurried conference took place, in which there was no stolidity on either side. "Run back as quick as you can and set the detonators--there ain"t a minute to lose, she may be down on us any time, and she"ll never see the other signals this weather.

I"d get "em all out of the train if I was you, mate--they ain"t safe where they are as it is, that they ain"t!"

The one guard ran back to his break, and then on to set the fog-signals, while the other went to warn the pa.s.sengers. "All get out "ere, please; all get out!" he shouted.

There was the usual obstructive person in the train who required to be logically convinced first of the necessity for disturbing himself; he put his head angrily out of a window near Mark"s: "Here, guard!" he shouted importantly; "what"s all this? _Why_ am I to get out?"

"Because you"d better," said the guard, shortly. "But why--where"s the platform? I insist on being taken to a platform--I"m not going to break my leg getting out here." Several people, who had half opened their doors, paused on the steps at this, as if recalled to a sense of their personal dignity. "Do as you please, sir," said the official; "the engine"s broke down, and we may be run into any minute in this fog; but if you"d be more comfortable up there----" There was no want of alacrity after that, the obstructive man being the first down; all the rosy-faced gentlemen hopped out, some of the younger ones still grasping half-played hands of "Nap" or "Loo," and made the best of their way down the embankment, and several old ladies were got out in various stages of flutter, narrowly escaping sprained ankles in the descent.

Mark, who had seen his opportunity from the first, had rushed to the door of the next compartment, caught Dolly in his arms as she jumped down, and, hardly believing in his own good fortune, held Mabel"s hand in his for one happy moment as she stepped from the high and awkward footboard.

"Down the slope, quick," he cried to them; "get as far from the line as you can in case of a smash."

Mabel turned a little pale, for she had not understood till then that there was any real danger. "Keep close to me, Dolly," she said, as they went down the slope; "we"re safe here."

The fog had gathered thick down in the meadows, and nothing could be seen of the abandoned train when they had gone a few paces from the foot of the embankment; the pa.s.sengers were moving about in excited groups, not knowing what horrors they might not be obliged to witness in the next few minutes. The excitement increased as one of them declared he could hear the noise of an approaching train. "Only just in time--G.o.d help them if they don"t pull up!" cried some, and a woman hoped that "the poor driver and stoker were not on the engine."

Dolly heard this and broke from Mabel with a loud cry--"Mabel, we"ve left Frisk!" she sobbed; "he"ll be killed--oh, my dog will be killed--he mustn"t be left behind!"

And, to Mark"s horror, she turned back, evidently with the idea of making for the point of danger; he ran after her and caught the little silvery-grey form fast in his arms. "Let me go!" cried Dolly, struggling; "I must get him back--oh, I must!"

"He"ll have jumped out by this time--he"s quite safe," said Mark in her ear.

"He was sound asleep in his basket, he"ll never wake if I don"t call to him--why do you hold me? I tell you I _will_ go!" persisted Dolly.

"No, Dolly, no," said Mabel, bending over her; "it"s too late--it"s hard to leave him, but we must hope for the best." She was crying, too, for the poor doomed dog as she spoke.

Mark was hardly a man from whom anything heroic could be very confidently expected; he was no more unselfish than the generality of young men; as a rule he disliked personally inconveniencing himself for other people, and in cooler moments, or without the stimulus of Mabel"s presence, he would certainly have seen no necessity to run the risk of a painful death for the sake of a dog.