zerland. After Mrs
Capron-Smith's remarks on the necessity of going to Switzerland in
winter if one wished to respect one's self, there was really no
alternative to Switzerland. Thus it was announced in the _Signal_
(which had reported the wedding in ten lines, owing to the excessive
quietude of the wedding) that Mr and Mrs Councillor Machin were spending
a month at Mont Pridoux, sur Montreux, on the Lake of Geneva. And the
announcement looked very well.

At Dieppe they got a through carriage. There were several through
carriages for Switzerland on the train. In walking through the corridors
from one to another Denry and Nellie had their first glimpse of the
world which travels and which runs off for a holiday whenever it feels
in the mood. The idea of going for a holiday in any month but August
seemed odd to both of them. Denry was very bold and would insist on
talking in a naturally loud voice. Nellie was timid and clinging. "What
do you say?" Denry would roar at her when she half-whispered something,
and she had to repeat it so that all could hear. It was part of their
plan to address each other curtly, brusquely, and to frown, and to
pretend to be slightly bored by each other.

They were outclassed by the world which travels. Try as they might, even
Denry was morally intimidated. He had managed his clothes fairly
correctly; he was not ashamed of them; and Nellie's were by no means the
worst in the compartments; indeed, according to the standard of some of
the most intimidating women, Nellie's costume erred in not being quite
sufficiently negligent, sufficiently "anyhow." And they had plenty, and
ten times plenty of money, and the consciousness of it. Expense was not
being spared on that honeymoon. And yet.... Well, all that can be said
is that the company was imposing. The company, which was entirely
English, seemed to be unaware that any one ever did anything else but
travel luxuriously to places mentioned in second-year geographies. It
astounded Nellie that there should be so many people in the world with
nothing to do but spend. And they were constantly saying the strangest
things with an air of perfect calm.

"How much did you pay for the excess luggage?" an untidy young woman
asked of an old man.

"Oh! Thirteen pounds," answered the old man, carelessly.

And not long before Nellie had scarcely escaped ten days in the steerage
of an Atlantic liner.

After dinner in the restaurant car--no champagne, becaus