Edgar Jepson

“ She fed the boy on warm milk and bread and butter; and it was such a delight to her that she could have wished him to go on eating and drinking for ever. The landlady came in once or twice and called him a pretty dear and a fine child; Lady Drysdale resented her interest, but she was careful to gratify her rustic curiosity with a story of how she had brought the boy down from London to Rickmansworth to spend a day in the country, and had wandered with him hither. While she took her own tea the boy enjoyed a splendid time with a large cat—the cat rather endured than enjoyed it. ”

“ The passengers were still busy with their injuries and theories of the cause of the catastrophe. She made up her mind to sever all connection between herself and the wrecked train, and she scanned the country. A couple of hundred yards from the line a high road ran parallel with it; beyond rose a great slope of woods and fields, up the slope ran a white footpath. The slope seemed familiar to her; at any rate, her path with the child lay over it. Somewhere on the other side was a railway other than the North-Western which would carry them to London. ”

“ His mother set him on the floor, and he rushed wildly down the carriage and tumbled up against Lady Drysdale's knee. Her hands shook so that she could scarcely lift him on to the seat beside her; he nearly dived into the bag in his eagerness to handle the bright treasures. ”

“ There are not many men who could refuse Lady Drysdale anything in their power to give her, if she put herself about to coax it out of them; certainly the simple but grumpy baker was not one of them; and in twenty minutes she was being jolted along to the station. She had to wait there but a very few minutes for a train, and reached London at six. ”

“ He took her tenderness in very good part and made no complaint; indeed, when at last she lay still, he clambered about her with chuckles of infinite delight; always he looked at her with familiar eyes.
Presently he turned his attention to Nature, and made little rushes at flowers near them, invariably falling flat on the object of his desire. He had been trained to bravery ”

“ At last the baby's mother was moved by Lady Drysdale’s sympathy to confide to her her horrible dread of the future. She was on her way to London to live with her people; London did not suit the boy, and she was tortured by the fear of his pining away there. Moreover, her stepmother did not like her, and hated children: she would he unkind to him. Lady Drysdale pressed him closer to her, and schemes for saving him began In float through her mind.
She was silent, thinking hard. Suddenly there came a grinding, grating jar, and the carriage swayed and jerked. ”