But he was calm, and perfectly able to meet the excited crowd of railway men who had gathered round him in a moment.

He explained, in gentle and convincing tones, that his wife had started at a moment's notice for Brittany to her dying mother; that, of course, she was greatly up-set, and he considerably concerned at her state; that he was trying to cheer her up, and had absolutely failed to notice at first that the train was moving out.

To the general exclamation, "Why didn't you go on to Southampton, then, sir ?" he objected the inexperience of a young sister-in-law left alone in the house with three small children, and her alarm at his absence, the telegraph offices being closed.

He had acted on impulse.

"But I don't think I'll ever try that again," he concluded; smiled all round; distributed some small change, and marched without a limp out of the station.
Outside, Comrade Ossipon, flush of safe banknotes as never before in his life, refused the offer of a cab.
"I can walk," he said, with a little friendly laugh to the civil driver.
He could walk.