Janet did not find these questions impertinent, she liked her red-haired neighbour, and could feel every question came from friendliness.

“I’ve not quite made up my mind. I’m a secretary so I expect I’d better put in for the same sort of thing in one of the services; the W.R.N.S. is what I should like.”

“Wouldn’t you rather have a change?”

“I would, but I’ve been a secretary for years, so I’d be more use in that than anything.”

“You can’t have been very many years.”

“Why not? How old do you think I am?”

The girl studied Janet. The small, slim figure. The pale, square, not pretty, but alive face, made noticeable by wide-set, beautiful grey eyes. She watched Janet’s smile. It was a lovely thing. It not only lit her up as though a light were switched on inside her, but seemed to spread outwards to make other people smile too; she was smiling in answer herself.

“Twenty-two? Twenty-three?”

“Twenty-five!”

“Are you? I shouldn’t have thought you were that much older than me. I’m twenty-one. I’d like to do something. I want to join the W.R.N.S. too, but I can’t just yet because of Daddy.” She lowered her voice, not that the five soldiers, two sailors, and three elderly women who filled the rest of the carriage were listening, but her dropped voice suggested that she was confiding something personal. “He was terribly ill last winter. The doctor thought he was going to die; he says he’s much stronger now, but he mustn’t have any worries. You know, no upset in his life. So of course just now I can’t leave him to join the W.R.N.S. or . . .” she hesitated and finished lamely, “or anything.”

Janet’s sympathetic eyes caught a faint flush on the girl’s cheek. She felt a wave of pity. The ‘or anything’ sounded suspiciously like marriage. Of course she was very young, but in these uncertain times it would be hard to put off getting married even for a month or two.

“I hope your father’s soon better. I’m lucky I’m not tied. My mother’s not very strong, but I’ve a younger sister who lives with her. She’s rather delicate, not fit for war work, but she can manage the work of the cottage they’re living in, so I’m not needed at home, thank goodness. I’m simply longing to join up, would have done it ages ago only I couldn’t leave my boss.”

The ticket collector came in from the corridor. He could not reach the end of the carriage so Janet gave her ticket to be passed to him. The girl took it casually then turned an amazed face.

“You’re going to Worsingfold.”

“Yes.”

“But that’s where I live.”

“So do my mother and sister.”