mpanies. Nothing could stop them
now. All slower traffic stood aside to let them pass, the express with
her two great engines vomiting fire and smoke, crawling across the map,
flying across bridges and through tunnels from the heart of the country
to the great city. Gradually, and with the exhilaration of their ever
increasing speed, the courage of the man revived, and the blood flowed
once more warmly through his veins. He lifted his head and looked
around him.

Shock the first came when he realised that he was in a first-class
carriage; shock the second, when he saw that his solitary companion
was a lady. He took in the details of her appearance and
surroundings--wonderful enough to him who had been brought up in a
cottage, and to whom the ways and resources of luxury were all unknown.
Every seat save the one which he occupied was covered with her
belongings. On one was a half-opened dressing-case filled with
gold-topped bottles and emitting a faint, delicate perfume. On another
was a pile of books and magazines, opposite to him a sable-lined coat,
by his side a luncheon basket and long hunting flask. Then his eyes
were caught by an oblong strip of paper pasted across the carriage
window--he read it backwards--"Engaged." What an intrusion! He looked
towards the woman with stammering words of apology upon his lips--but
the words died away. He was tongue-tied.

He had met the languid gaze of her dark, full eyes, a little
supercilious, a little amused, faintly curious, and his own fell at once
before their calm insolence. She was handsomely dressed. The delicate,
white hand which held her novel was ablaze with many and wonderful
rings. She was evidently tall, without doubt stately. Her black hair,
parted in the middle, drooped a little to the side by her ears, her
complexion, delightfully clear, was of a curious ivory pallor
unassociated with ill-health. She regarded him through a pair of
ivory-handled lorgnettes, which she carelessly closed as he looked
towards her.

"Will you tell me," she asked quietly, "why you have entered my carriage
which is engaged--and in such an extraordinary manner?"

He drew a little breath. He had never heard a voice like it
before--soft, musical, and with the slightest suggestion of a foreign
accent. Then he remembered that she was waiting for an answer. He
began his apology.

"I am sorry--indeed I am very sorry. I had no time to look inside, and
I thought it was an empty carriage--a