a robber who looked it would be arrested on sight."

"But he is very good-looking," insisted the younger woman, who had, in
the meantime, taken a second glance at Keith, who pretended to be
immersed in a book.

"Well, so much the worse. They are the very worst kind. Never trust a
good-looking young stranger, my dear. They may be all right in romances,
but never in life."

As her companion did not altogether appear to take this view, the old
lady half turned presently, and taking a long look down the other side
of the car, to disarm Keith of any suspicion that she might be looking
at him, finally let her eyes rest on his face, quite accidentally, as it
were. A moment later she was whispering to her companion.

"I am sure he is watching us. I am going to ask you to stick close
beside me when we get to New York until I find a hackney-coach."

"Have you been to New York often?" asked the girl, smiling.

"I have been there twice in the last thirty years; but I spent several
winters there when I was a young girl. I suppose it has changed a good
deal in that time?"

The young lady also supposed that it had changed in that time, and
wondered why Miss Brooke--the name the other had given--did not come to
New York oftener.

"You see, it is such an undertaking to go now," said the old lady.
"Everything goes with such a rush that it takes my breath away. Why,
three trains a day each way pass near my home now. One of them actually
rushes by in the most impetuous and disdainful way. When I was young we
used to go to the station at least an hour before the train was due, and
had time to take out our knitting and compose our thoughts; but now one
has to be at the station just as promptly as if one were going to
church, and if you don't get on the train almost before it has stopped,
the dreadful thing is gone before you know it. I must say, it is very
destructive to one's nerves."

Her companion laughed.

"I don't know what you will think when you get to New York."

"Think! I don't expect to think at all. I shall just shut my eyes and
trust to Providence."

"Your friends will meet you there, I suppose?"

"I wrote them two weeks ago that I should be there to-day, and then my
cousin wrote me to let her know the train, and I replied, telling her
what train I expected to take. I would never have come if I had imagined
we were going to have this trouble."

The girl reassured her by telling her that even if her friends did n