“Well you have got some luggage and no mistake,” said Lily-Annie. “Why don’t you put it in the van?”
Lydia said she would with pleasure, but there usually weren’t any porters.
“We’ll put it in for you all right,” said Doris Phipps. “It’s a pity Sid Crackman isn’t the guard on your train—he’s a lovely man. He let Lily-Annie and I go to Barchester in the van with him one day.”
“You are lucky,” said Lydia with undisguised envy. “I’ve only once been in a guard’s van in my life, when I was quite small.”
Conversing amicably in a way that would have shocked Mr. Beedle to the core, Lydia and her attendant nymphs walked along the platform to the steps.
“Remember the day Bill Morple chucked the sack of potatoes down the steps?” said Doris Phipps to Lily-Annie. “I’ve never laughed so much, seein
