He was tired after his exciting, busy day, and glad to sit down alone, to think over all that the day had brought them, and was likely to bring them.
Mr.Simmons, the station-master, must have been tired too, though his day had been neither busy nor exciting, for when at last he did appear, he was stretching and yawning as though the nap he had been having in his office had not been quite long enough for him.
When he saw Thomas his eye brightened, and he joined him at once, for he dearly loved a gossip, and he had in his mind a long story that he was impatient to pour out to somebody.

The story was so long and so interesting that the whistle of the fast-approaching train was heard long before it was ended, and of his own story Thomas had not been able to tell a word.
"Is that the London train ?" he asked eagerly, starting to his feet.
"It is, sir.

Are you going by it ?" "No--o, oh no," said Thomas.

His face flushed and his hands shook as a carriage door opened here and there and a passenger got out.
"Are 'ee expecting somebody ?" asked the station-master, with just a touch of impatience in his voice.

He did not approve of this reserve in Thomas, just after he had confided all that story to him too.
"Well, I hardly know," said Thomas slowly.