or
sale, they would have come too expensive and I should have had to give
them up; for their eyes alone, to say nothing of their pleasant white
grins, would have been worth pounds and pounds. As for their voices,
they were the sweetest I'd heard in America, soft, and a little
throaty, with a peculiar quality, quite different from the voice of a
person who hasn't been dipped in _cafe au lait_. With their vivid red
caps, their brilliant eyes, and their lightning-flash smiles, they
looked to me more like great wonderful, tropical birds than human
beings, and they seemed so honey-luscious in their good nature that I'm
sure all the things that serious and learned people say in England
about the "dangers of the increasing coloured population in America"
must be nonsense. Serious and learned people do make such mistakes,
through never seeing the fun in anything; and every few years they find
out that they have been quite wrong in what they have taught with so
much trouble, about comets and microbes and men, and other progressive
things.

We had a number of these tropical birds that have been tamed to serve
the railway, to help us with our bags and things getting into the
train, although there were Louise and a couple of Mrs. Ess Kay's
footmen as well. I looked at their brown hands, and they were quite
pink inside, as pink as mine. I don't know why this gave me a shock,
but it did. Perhaps one had the feeling that the nice creatures were
only painted to play their parts, or that their white souls--just like
ours--were striking through their skins.

It was a beautiful train. Even the engine was different from our kind,
much fiercer, and reared its head higher, like a wild stag compared to
a stout but reliable ox. Our carriage had no compartments in it, but
was just one long wide, moving corridor, all plate glass windows and
mirrors, and painted panels, and velvet arm chairs dotted about, rather
like a hotel drawing-room on wheels.

There were a good many people in it when we got in, which annoyed Mrs.
Ess Kay so much that she wished she had borrowed a private car from a
friend who would have loved lending it. But I was glad she hadn't, for
the people were part of the fun. Mrs. Ess Kay was sure they were
nobodies, because she didn't happen to know any of their faces; but
perhaps they were thinking the same thing about her.

Anyway, they were mostly women and all pretty and perfectly dressed, as
even quite common people appea