But one evening as I stared as usual with the crowd in the coach yard,
and had watched three portly strangers already emerge from the open
door to the steps, and was prepared for the accustomed sinking of my
heart, what did that heart do but give a great bound so as almost to
choke me! There he was in the doorway, the same old Phil, with the
same kindly face. I rushed forward. Before I reached him, he had
turned around toward the inside of the coach, as if he would help some
one out after him. "Some decrepit fellow traveller," thought I, and
looked up indifferently to see what sort of person it might be: and
there, as I live, stepping out from the coach, and taking his offered
hand, was Fanny!
I was at her other side before either of them knew it, holding up my
hand likewise. They glanced at me in the same instant; and Phil's glad
smile came as the accompaniment to Fanny's joyous little cry. I had an
arm around each in a moment; and we created some proper indignation
for a short space by blocking up the way from the stage-coach.
"Come!" I cried. "We'll take a hackney-coach! How happy mother will
be!--But no, you must be hungry. Will you eat here first?--a cup of
coffee? a glass of wine?"
But they insisted upon waiting till we got to Hampstead; and, scarce
knowing what I was about, yet accomplishing wonders in my excitement,
I had a coach ready, and their trunks and bags transferred, and all of
us in the coach, before I stopped to breathe.
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