I starred out of that railway carriage window into the dark and watched the deem trees and...

Laura Jesson: [Secret thoughts] I starred out of that railway carriage window into the dark and watched the deem trees and the telegraph posts slipping by. And through them I saw Alec and me. Alec and me, perhaps a little younger than we are now, but just as much in love and we have nothing in the way. I saw us in Paris, in a box at the opera. The orchestra was tuning up. Then we were in Venice, drifting along the Grand Canal in a gondola with the sound of mandolins coming to us over the water. I saw us traveling far away together. All the places I've always longed to go. I saw us leaning on the rail of a ship, looking at the sea and stars. Standing on a tropical beach, in the moonlight, with the palm trees sighing above us. Then the palm trees changed into those pallided willows by the canal, just before the level crossing. And all the silly dreams disappeared. And I got out at Ketchworth and gave up my ticket and walked home as usual. Quite soberly and without wings. Without any wings at all.