, proved quite futile; every compartment was packed
with people hurrying out of town for Easter, and in a few moments she
returned.

"I'm sorry," she said, rather shyly. "Every seat is taken. I'm afraid
you'll have to put up with me."

Just then the carriage gave a violent lurch, as the express swung around
a bend, and Diana, dropping everything she held, made a frantic clutch at
the rack above her head, while her goods and chattels shot across the
floor, her dressing-case sliding gaily along till its wild career was
checked against the foot of the man in the corner.

With an air of resignation he rose and retrieved her belongings, placing
them on the seat opposite her.

"It would have been better if you had taken my advice," he observed, with
a sort of weary patience.

Diana felt unreasonably angry with him.

"Why don't you say 'I told you so' at once?" she said tartly.

A whimsical smile crossed his face.

"Well, I did, didn't I?"

He stood for a moment looking down at her, steadying himself with one
hand against the doorway, and her ill-humour vanishing as quickly as it
had arisen, she returned the smile.

"Yes, you did. And you were quite right, too," she acknowledged frankly.

He laughed outright.

"Well done!" he cried. "Not one woman in twenty will own herself in the
wrong as a rule."

Diana frowned.

"I don't agree with you at all," she bristled. "Men have a ridiculous
way of lumping all women together and then generalising about them."

"Let's discuss the question," he said gaily. "May I?" And scarcely
waiting for her permission, he deliberately moved aside her things and
seated himself opposite her.

"But you were busy writing," she protested.

He threw an indifferent glance in the direction of his writing-pad, where
it lay on the seat in the corner.

"Was I?" he answered calmly. "Sometimes there are better things to do
than scribbling--pleasanter ones, anyway."

Diana flushed. It certainly was an unusual thing to do, to get into
conversation with an unknown man with whom one chanced to be travelling,
and she had never before committed such a breach of the
conventions--would have been shocked at the bare idea of it--but there
was something rather irresistible about this man's cool self-possession.
He seemed to assume that a thing must of necessity be right, since he
chose to do it.

She looked up and met his eyes watching her with a glint of amusement in
their depths.

"No