Followed a hurried gathering
together of hand-baggage, a scramble up the steep steps of the railway
coach, a piercing whistle, and the train pulled out of the station and went
rocking on its way through the starry darkness of the night.
CHAPTER IX
OLDSTONE COTTAGE
The journey from Montricheux to London accomplished, Ann was speeding
through the familiar English country-side once more and finding it doubly
attractive after her six months' sojourn abroad. The train slowed down to
manipulate a rather sharp curve in the line as it approached Silverquay
station, and she peered eagerly out of the window to see the place which
was henceforth to mean home to her. She caught a fleeting glimpse of white
cliffs, crowned with the waving green of woods, of the dazzling blue of a
bay far below, and of a straggling, picturesque village which climbed the
side of a steep hill sloping upward from the shore. Over all lay the warm
haze of early July sunshine. Then the train ran into the station and she
had eyes only for Robin's tall, straight figure as he came striding along
the platform to meet her.
Brother and sister resembled each other but slightly. In place of Ann's
tempestuous coppery hair Robin was endowed with sober brown, and for her
golden-hazel eyes, with their changeful lights, nature had substituted in
him a pair of serious greenish-brown ones.
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