You cannot tell at all by the outward
circumstances.

There was a striking illustration of this in the case of the party that
attracted Rollo's attention in the court of the diligence office. The
gentleman's name was Howland. One of the ladies was his young wife, and
the other lady was her sister. The sister's name was Louise. Mr. Howland
intended to have taken the whole _coupe_ for his party; but when he
went to the office, the day before, to take the places, he found that
one of the seats of the _coupe_ had been engaged by a gentleman who was
travelling alone.

"How unlucky!" said Mr. Howland to himself. "We must have three seats,
and it won't do for us to be shut up in the interior, for there we
cannot see the scenery at all."

So he went home, and asked his wife what it would be best to do. "We
cannot have three seats together," said he, "unless we go up upon the
_banquette_."

But the bride said that she could not possibly ride on the _banquette_.
She could not climb up to such a high place.

Now, Mrs. Howland's real reason for not being willing to ride on the
banquette, was not the difficulty of climbing up, for at all the
diligence offices they have convenient step ladders for the use of the
passengers in getting up and down. The real reason was, she thought it
was not genteel to ride there. And in fact it is not genteel. There is
no part of the diligence where people who attach much importance to the
fashion of the thing are willing to go, except the coupe.

"And we don't want to ride in the interior," said Mr. Howland.

"No," said the bride, "that is worse than the banquette."

"Nor to wait till another day," added Mr. Howland.

"No," said Mrs. Howland. "We must go to-morrow, and we must have the
_coupe_. The gentleman who has engaged the third seat will give it up to
us, I am sure, when he knows that it is to oblige a lady. You can engage
the two seats in the coupe, and one more, either on the banquette or in
the interior, and then when the time comes to set out we will get the
gentleman to let us have his seat. You can pay him the difference."

"But, Angelina," said Mr. Howland, "I should not like to ask such a
thing of the gentleman. He has taken pains to go a day or two
beforehand to engage his seat, so as to make sure of a good one, and I
don't think we ought to expect him to give it up to accommodate
strangers."

"O, he won't mind," said Mrs. Howland. "He would as lief change as not.
And if