A Life's Secret Author:Ellen Wood Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. . AWAY TO LONDON. A Heavy train, drawn by two engines, was dashing towards London. Whitsuntide had come, and the public took advantage of the ... more »holiday, and the trains were crammed. Austin Clay took advantage of it also ; it was a saving to his pocket, the fares having been lowered ; and he rather liked a cram. What he did not like, though, was the being stuffed into a first-class carriage with its warm mats and its cushions. The crowd was so great that people sat indiscriminately in any carriage that came first. The day was intensely hot, and he would have preferred one open on all sides. They were filled, however, before he came. He had left Ketterford, and was on his road to London to seek his fortune—as old stories used to say. AWAY TO LONDON. 47 Seated in the same compartment as himself, was a lady with a little girl. The former appeared to be in very delicate health ; she remarked more than once, that she would not have travelled on so crowded a day, had she given it proper thought. The little girl was chiefly remarkable for making herself troublesome to Austin : at least, her mamma perpetually reproached her with doing so. She was a lovely child, with delicately carved features, slightly aquiline, but inexpressibly sweet and charming. A bright colour illumined her cheeks, her eyes were large and dark and soft, and her brown curls were flowing. He judged her to be perhaps eleven years old; but she was one of those natural, unsophisticated children, who appear much younger than they are. The race has pretty nearly gone out of the world now: I hope it will come back again. " Florence, how can you be so tiresome ? Pushing yourself before the gentleman against that dangerous door! it may fly open at any moment. I am sure he must be tired of holding you....« less