his merits.

Since he had seen Alice he began to understand Carmen better. Carmen
had charm and knew how to use it to her advantage, while he could not
imagine Alice's employing her beauty to gain an object. She was proud,
with an essentially clean pride, and sincere, while Carmen had a talent
for intrigue. The latter enjoyed using her cleverness to put down a
rival or secure a prominent place; she was a hustler, as they said in
the West. Alice, he thought, would not even claim what was hers; it
must be willingly offered or she would let it go. Yet he knew she
would be a staunch and generous friend to anybody who gained her
confidence.

This kind of comparison, however, was profitless and perhaps in bad
taste. After all, he was a friend of Carmen's and must do her errand.
He left the Garth next morning, and Featherstone, who made him promise
to come back as soon as possible, drove him across the moors to a small
station on the North British line, where he caught an Edinburgh train.

When they ran out of the hills at Hawick, rain was falling and the
valley filled with smoky haze, through which loomed factories and
chimney stacks. The station was crowded, and Foster gathered from the
talk of the people who got in that a big wool sale was going on and the
townsfolk who were not at the auction made it a holiday. His
compartment was full, but looking through the window he saw a
fashionably dressed girl hurrying along the platform with a porter.
They tried one or two carriages, in which there seemed to be no room,
and the guard had blown his whistle when they came abreast of Foster's
compartment. Opening the door as the train began to move, he held out
his hand and pulled the girl in.

"My bag; it mustn't be left!" she cried, trying to get back to the
door, but Foster caught the bag as the porter held it up and put it on
the rack.

"There's a seat in the corner," he said and went into the corridor.

When they stopped at Galashiels a number of people got out, and he
returned to the compartment. It was now unoccupied except by an old
man and the girl he had helped, who gave him a grateful smile.

"I hadn't time to thank you, but I should have missed the train if you
had not been prompt," she said.

Foster did not know if Scottish etiquette warranted anything more than
a conventional reply, but he ventured to remark: "You certainly seemed
to have cut things rather fine."

"I had to drive some distance and th