ch stranger
what is his purpose there,--whether he be going or has just come,
whether he is himself on the way or waiting for others, whether he
should be treated with civility or with some curt command,--so that
if his purport be honest all necessary assistance may be rendered
him. As Lopez was walking up and down, with smiling face and
leisurely pace, now reading an advertisement and now watching the
contortions of some amazed passenger, a certain pundit asked him
his business. He was waiting, he said, for a train from Liverpool,
intending, when his friend arrived, to go with him to Dulwich by a
train which went round the west of London. It was all feasible, and
the pundit told him that the stopping train from Liverpool was due
there in six minutes, but that the express from the north would
pass first. Lopez thanked the pundit and gave him sixpence,--which
made the pundit suspicious. A pundit hopes to be paid when he
handles luggage, but has no such expectation when he merely gives
information.

The pundit still had his eye on our friend when the shriek and the
whirr of the express from the north was heard. Lopez walked quickly
up towards the edge of the platform, when the pundit followed him,
telling him that this was not his train. Lopez then ran a few yards
along the platform, not noticing the man, reaching a spot that was
unoccupied;--and there he stood fixed. And as he stood the express
flashed by. "I am fond of seeing them pass like that," said Lopez to
the man who had followed him.

"But you shouldn't do it, sir," said the suspicious pundit. "No one
isn't allowed to stand near like that. The very hair of it might take
you off your legs when you're not used to it."

"All right, old fellow," said Lopez, retreating. The next train was
the Liverpool train; and it seemed that our friend's friend had not
come, for when the Liverpool passengers had cleared themselves off,
he was still walking up and down the platform. "He'll come by the
next," said Lopez to the pundit, who now followed him about and kept
an eye on him.

"There ain't another from Liverpool stopping here till the 2.20,"
said the pundit. "You had better come again if you mean to meet him
by that."

"He has come on part of the way, and will reach this by some other
train," said Lopez.

"There ain't nothing he can come by," said the pundit. "Gentlemen
can't wait here all day, sir. The horders is against waiting on the
platform."

"All right," s