eap tourists. Moreover,
I shall tell all my friends to avoid Switzerland. Perhaps, when
British patronage is withdrawn from your railways and hotels, you
will begin to consider our requirements."

Helen felt that her irate fellow countrywoman was metaphorically
hurling large volumes of the peerage, baronetage, and landed gentry at
the unhappy conductor's head. Again he pointed out that there was a
seat at madam's service. When the train started he would do his best
to secure another in the desired position.

As the woman, whose proportions were generous, was blocking the
gangway, she received a forcible reminder from the end of a heavy
portmanteau that she must clear out of the way. Breathing dire
reprisals on the Swiss federal railway system, she entered
unwillingly.

"Disgraceful!" she snorted. "A nation of boors! In another second I
should have been thrown down and trampled on."

A stolid German and his wife occupied opposite corners, and the man
probably wondered why the _Englischer frau_ glared at him so fiercely.
But he did not move.

Helen, thinking to throw oil on the troubled waters, said pleasantly,
"Won't you change seats with me? I don't mind whether I face the
engine or not. In any case, I intend to stand in the corridor most of
the time."

The stout woman, hearing herself addressed in English, lifted her
mounted eyeglasses and stared at Helen. In one sweeping glance she
took in details. As it happened, the girl had expended fifteen of her
forty pounds on a neat tailor made costume, a smart hat, well fitting
gloves, and the best pair of walking boots she could buy; for, having
pretty feet, it was a pardonable vanity that she should wish them well
shod. Apparently, the other was satisfied that there would be no loss
of caste in accepting the proffered civility.

"Thank you. I am very much obliged," she said. "It is awfully sweet of
you to incommode yourself for my sake."

It was difficult to believe that the woman who had just stormed at
the conductor, who had the effrontery to subject Helen to that
stony scrutiny before she answered, could adopt such dulcet tones
so suddenly. Helen, frank and generous-minded to a degree, would
have preferred a gradual subsidence of wrath to this remarkable
_volte-face_. But she reiterated that she regarded her place in a
carriage as of slight consequence, and the change was effected.

The other adjusted her eyeglasses again, and passed in review the
remaining o