As she did so a bit of buff cardboard fluttered on to the gravel at her feet.

She stooped and picked it up.

It was the return half of her ticket to Cornwall.
The remembrance of her arrival at Paddington revived in her as she looked at it--the fright she had had when the ticket collector caught her by the arm to return half of the whole ticket she had given up.

She had put the ticket in the pocket of her jacket and never thought of it again.

Had Fate decreed her original mistake of taking a return ticket when she needed only a single one?
She was at that moment inclined to think so.
The question of its use was decided as soon as she saw it.