The sooner I was back in Braster the better.
From the station I had walked straight to Ray's house, and from Ray's house I returned, without any deviation, direct to the great terminus.
For a man with less than fifty pounds in the world London is scarcely a hospitable city.

I caught a slow train, and after four hours of jolting, cold, and the usual third-class miseries, alighted at Rowchester Junction.

Already I had started on the three mile tramp home, my coat collar turned up as some slight protection against the drizzling rain, when a two-wheeled trap overtook me, and Mr.Moyat shouted out a gruff greeting.

He raised the water-proof apron, and I clambered in by his side.
"Been to Sunbridge ?" he inquired cheerfully.
"I have been to London," I answered.
"You haven't been long about it," he remarked.

"I saw you on the eight-twenty, didn't I ?" I nodded.
"My business was soon over," I said.
"I've been to Sunbridge," he told me.