Page:Burnett - Two Little Pilgrims' Progress A Story of the City Beautiful.djvu/112

100 thought the train would begin to move again and carry them away. Some were expecting friends to meet them, some were anxious about finding accommodations. Those who knew each other talked, asked questions over people's shoulders, and there was a general anxiety about valises, parcels, and umbrellas. Robin and Meg were pressed back into their section by the crowd, against which they were too young to make headway.

"We shall have to wait until the grown-up people have passed by," Rob said.

But the crowd in the aisle soon lost its compactness, and they were able to get out. The porter who stood on the platform near the steps looked at them curiously and glanced behind them to see who was with them, but he said nothing.

It seemed to the two as if all the world must have poured itself into the big depôt, or be passing through it. People were rushing about, friends were searching for one another, pushing their way through the surging crowd; some were greeting each other with exclamations and hand-shaking and stopping up the way; there was a babel of voices, a clamour of shouts within the covered space, and from outside came a roar of sound issuing from the city.

For a few moments Robin and Meg were