yoh section; got so much to do
won't git through 'fore midnight."

"All right, where can we go? This one across here is unoccupied,"
replied Jack, wishing to accommodate.

"Dat section, sah, will not be taken until we neah Albany, sah," came
from the man of tips and corporation dignity.

They had been seated but a few moments when the occupant of the section
next forward of their own was obliged to find temporary quarters as the
ever-obliging servant of monopoly touched his cap for permission. A lady
of prepossessing countenance, faultlessly gowned and of gracious manner,
knocked, as it were, at Jack's door, addressing him, "May I occupy this
vacant seat while the porter arranges my domicile? Pardon the intrusion,
but all other avenues seem already taxed."

"Certainly, it is no intrusion; in fact, we shall be glad to have you,
as you have had a long siege of solitaire," replied Jack.

"I do get so lonesome on my trips that I sometimes wish some one else
had the position," answered the lady with that assurance which
accompanies experience.

"Gathering from that, I judge you travel for business instead of
pleasure," said Jack.

"Yes, I make two trips a year on business. I am buyer for Stoddersmith
of Boston, and am on my way to Colorado and California. I shall visit
Estes Park, Manitou and other points, then go to India and China."

Jack was no more surprised than if she had told him she was
quartermaster in the navy, or a field marshal in the German army. He
looked incredulous. The lady handed him her card, which read, "Miss
Asquith, Stoddersmith's, Boston," remarking that if it would be
agreeable she would tell them how it happened a woman occupied so
important a position, and naively added, "The only firm in the world who
employs one of our sex in this department, even as a saleslady."

"Oh, do tell us," said Hazel, and to Jack, "Just think of a woman going
alone to India to buy goods!"

"This trip is really a part of my twenty-fifth anniversary with the
firm,"--

Hazel interrupted. "Pardon me, but do you mean to say you have been
twenty-five years with one firm?"

"Yes, and I am but forty-five. I went to work, a girl of fifteen, in one
of the then larger western cities and after five years concluded I would
prefer an eastern house. New York did not offer the inducement which I
found in Boston. I was placed in the fur stock in winter and lighter
wraps in summer. For some reason, after I had been with the