"We won't go through the gates," said Mr. Ranny, with consideration for
Miss Isobel's tearful condition. "Quin will get you aboard all right.
Good-by, kiddie!"
Eleanor stumbled after Quin with many a backward glance. Both Aunt Isobel
and Uncle Ranny seemed to have acquired haloes of kindness and affection,
and she felt like a selfish ingrate. She looked at the lunch-box in her
hand, and thought of Rose rising at dawn to fix it before she went to
work. She remembered the little gifts Cass and Myrna and Edwin had
slipped in her bag. How good they had all been to her, and how she was
going to miss them! Now that she was actually embarked on her great
adventure, a terrible misgiving seized her.
"Train starts in two minutes, boss!" warned the porter, as Quin helped
Eleanor aboard and piloted her to her seat.
"You couldn't hold it up for half an hour, could you?" asked Quin. Then,
as he glanced down and met Eleanor's eyes brimming with all those recent
tendernesses, his carefully practised stoicism received a frightful jolt.
As the "All aboard!" sounded, she clutched his sleeve in sudden panic.
"Oh, Quin, I know I'm going to be horribly lonesome and homesick.
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