At these words Colin’s heart, but lately a dry and crumpled affair, began to expand like a new bath sponge. Some people, even quite sensible grown-up people, would have spoken of a Toy railway and asked him if he would like to play with it. Fools! A model railway was a very sacred thing and to run it a privilege not to be granted lightly to one’s younger brother, or children if any. His heart warmed to the Dean twins and he asked Susan more about them and their railway. For a woman he found Susan surprisingly well informed, able to describe an engine by its class and its wheels, sound on the matter of steel-built coaches, versed in the gauges of the Dominions and abroad.
“I see,” said Colin, “they are beginning to standardize the Australian railways at last. Is it four or five different g
