lightly cross, and wholly self-complacent face of a
stout lady in a black-and-white costume, who was reading the Strand
Magazine, while her other, sleek, plump hand, freed from its black glove,
and ornamented with a thick watch-bracelet, rested on her lap. A
younger, bright-cheeked, and self-conscious female was sitting next her,
looking at the pale girl who had just got in.

"There's something about that girl," thought Shelton, "they don't like."
Her brown eyes certainly looked frightened, her clothes were of a foreign
cut. Suddenly he met the glance of another pair of eyes; these eyes,
prominent and blue, stared with a sort of subtle roguery from above a
thin, lopsided nose, and were at once averted. They gave Shelton the
impression that he was being judged, and mocked, enticed, initiated. His
own gaze did not fall; this sanguine face, with its two-day growth of
reddish beard, long nose, full lips, and irony, puzzled him. "A cynical
face!" he thought, and then, "but sensitive!" and then, "too cynical,"
again.

The young man who owned it sat with his legs parted at the knees, his
dusty trouser-ends and boots slanting back beneath the seat, his yellow
finger-tips crisped as if rolling cigarettes. A strange air of
detachment was about that youthful, shabby figure, and not a scrap of
luggage filled the rack above his head.

The frightened girl was sitting next this pagan personality; it was
possibly the lack of fashion in his looks that caused, her to select him
for her confidence.

"Monsieur," she asked, "do you speak French?"

"Perfectly."

"Then can you tell me where they take the tickets?

"The young man shook his head.

"No," said he, "I am a foreigner."

The girl sighed.

"But what is the matter, ma'moiselle?"

The girl did not reply, twisting her hands on an old bag in her lap.
Silence had stolen on the carriage--a silence such as steals on animals
at the first approach of danger; all eyes were turned towards the figures
of the foreigners.

"Yes," broke out the red-faced man, "he was a bit squiffy that
evening--old Tom."

"Ah!" replied his neighbour, "he would be."

Something seemed to have destroyed their look of mutual distrust. The
plump, sleek hand of the lady with the Roman nose curved convulsively;
and this movement corresponded to the feeling agitating Shelton's heart.
It was almost as if hand and heart feared to be asked for something.

"Monsieur," said the girl, with a tremble in h