'We are more than half an hour late.' "And so it proved.

A whole hour and a half had we to sit shivering, in spite of the big fire, in the Fexel waiting-room, and it was eleven at night before, in the slowest of slow trains, we at last found ourselves within a few miles of East Hornham.
"Our spirits had gone down considerably since the morning.

We were very tired, and that has _very_ much more to do with people's spirits than almost any one realises.
"'It wouldn't matter if we were going to friends,' said Mary.

'But it does seem very strange and desolate--we two poor things, two days before Christmas, arriving at midnight in a perfectly strange place, and nowhere to go to but an inn.' "'But think how nice it will be, getting home to mother again--particularly if we've settled it all nicely about the house,' I said.
"And Mary told me I was a good little thing, and she was very glad to have me with her.

It was not usual for me to be the braver of the two, but you see I felt my responsibilities on this occasion to be great, and was determined to show myself worthy of them.
"And when we did get to the inn, the welcome we received was worthy of Dr.Johnson's praise of inns in general.