cean steamship, but theirs had
dated from the preceding winter, during which they had often met in San
Francisco. When Mr. Lombard heard that Miss Dwyer and Mrs. Eustis, her
invalid sister, were going East in April, he discovered that he would
have business to attend to in New York at about that time; and oddly
enough,--that is, if you choose to take that view of it,--when the
ladies came to go, it turned out that Lombard had taken his ticket for
the selfsame train and identical sleeping-car. The result of which
was that he had the privilege of handing Miss Dwyer in and out at the
eating-stations, of bringing Mrs. Eustis her cup of tea in the car, and
of sharing Miss Dwyer's seat and monopolizing her conversation when
he had a mind to, which was most of the time. A bright and congenial
companion has this advantage over a book, that he or she is an author
whom you can make discourse on any subject you please, instead of being
obliged to follow an arbitrary selection by another, as when you commune
with the printed page.

By way of peace-offering for his blasphemy in calling the Nevada desert
a leper, Lombard had embezzled a couple of chairs from the smoking-room
and carried them to the rear platform of the car, which happened to be
the last of the train, and invited Miss Dwyer to come thither and see
the scenery. Whether she had wanted to pardon him or not, he knew very
well that this was a temptation which she could not resist, for the rear
platform was the best spot for observation on the entire train, unless
it were the cowcatcher of the locomotive.

The April sun mingled with the frosty air like whiskey with ice-water,
producing an effect cool but exhilarating. As she sat in the door of the
little passage leading to the platform, she scarcely needed the shawl
which he wrapped about her with absurdly exaggerated solicitude. One
of the most unmistakable symptoms of the lover is the absorbing and
superfluous care with which he adjusts the wraps about the object of his
affections whether the weather be warm or cold: it is as if he thought
he could thus artificially warm her heart toward him. But Miss Dwyer did
not appear vexed, pretending indeed to be oblivious of everything else
in admiration of the spectacle before her.

The country stretched flat and bare as a table for fifty miles on either
side the track,--a distance looking in the clear air not over one
fifth as great. On every side this great plain was circled b