shadows of the day, the dreariness of the bleak landscape, chilled her to the heart.  She comforted herself by reflecting with what eager cheerfulness Perigal would greet her; how delighted he would be at receiving from her lips further confirmation of her news; how loyally he would fulfil his many promises by making the earliest arrangements for their marriage.  Arrived at her destination, she learned she would have to wait twelve minutes till the train arrived that would bring her lover from Wales.  She did not stay in the comparative comfort of the waiting-room, but, despite the pain that movement still gave her, preferred to wander in the streets of the dull, quaint town till his train was due.  A thousand doubts assailed her mind:  perhaps he would not come, or would be angry with her, or would meet with an accident upon the way.  Her mind travelled quickly, and her body felt the need of keeping pace with the rapidity of her thoughts.  She walked with sharp, nervous steps down the road leading from the station, to be pulled up by the insistent pain in her head.  She returned so carefully that Perigal’s train was steaming into the station as she reached the booking office.  She walked over the bridge to get to his platform, to be stopped for a few moments by the rush, roar, and violence of a West of England express, passing immediately under where she stood.  The disturbance of the passing train stunned and then jarred her overwrought nerves, causing the pain in her face to get suddenly worse.  As she met those who had got out of the train Perigal would come by, she wondered if he would so much as notice the disfigurement of her face.  For her part, if he came to her one-armed and blind, it would make no difference to her; indeed, she would love him the more.  Perigal stepped from the door of a first class compartment, seemingly having been aroused from sleep by a porter; he carried a bag.

Mavis noticed, with a great concern, how careworn he was looking—­a great concern, because, directly she set eyes on him, she realised the immensity of her love for him.  At that moment she loved him more than she had ever done before; he was not only her lover, to whom she had surrendered herself body and soul, but also the father of her unborn little one.  Faintness threatened her; she clung to the handle of a weighing machine for support.

“More trouble!” he remarked, as he reached her.

She looked at him with frightened eyes, finding it hard to believe the evidence of her ears.

“W-what?” she faltered.

“Heavens!”

“What’s the matter, dear?”

“What have you done to your face?”

“I—­I hoped you wouldn’t notice.  I’ve had an abscess.”

“Notice it!  Haven’t you looked in the glass?”

Mavis bit her lip.

“I shouldn’t have thought you could look so—­look like that,” he continued.

“What trouble did you mean?” she found words to ask.