The children reluctantly turned from the newsman"s trumpery, and they all went out to the track, and took seats on the benches under the colonnade.
While they waited; the train for Buffalo drew in, and they remained watching it till it started. In the last car that pa.s.sed them, when it was fairly under way, a face looked full at Isabel from one of the windows. In that moment of astonishment she forgot to observe whether it was sad or glad; she only saw, or believed she saw, the light of recognition dawn into its eyes, and then it was gone.
"Basil!" she cried, "stop the train! That was Kitty Ellison!"
"Oh no, it wasn"t," said Basil, easily. "It looked like her; but it looked at least ten years older."
"Why, of course it was! We"re all ten years older," returned his wife in such indignation at his stupidity that she neglected to insist upon his stopping the train, which was rapidly diminishing in the perspective.
He declared it was only a fancied resemblance; she contended that this was in the neighborhood of Eriecreek, and it must be Kitty; and thus one of their most inveterate disagreements began.
Their own train drew into the depot, and they disputed upon the fact in question till they entered on the pa.s.sage of the Suspension Bridge. Then Basil rose and called the children to his side. On the left hand, far up the river, the great Fall shows, with its mists at its foot and its rainbow on its brow, as silent and still as if it were vastly painted there; and below the bridge on the right, leap the Rapids in the narrow gorge, like seas on a rocky sh.o.r.e. "Look on both sides, now," he said to the children. "Isabel you must see this!"
Isabel had been preparing for the pa.s.sage of this bridge ever since she left Boston. "Never!" she exclaimed. She instantly closed her eyes, and hid her face in her handkerchief. Thanks to this precaution of hers, the train crossed the bridge in perfect safety.