ic reflection he went out to arrange for
transferring the Tadmor, and, incidentally, to get his own dinner. When
the first was done there was scant time for the second, and he was at
the lunch counter when the President's party went back to the
Naught-fifty.

"Why, they've taken on another car," said Gertrude, noticing the change.

"No," her father rejoined, shortly; "we have a passenger agent on board,
and he has seen fit to put his excursionists' car in the rear."

At the word, Gertrude's thoughts went back to a certain afternoon filled
with a swift rush down a precipitous canyon, with a brawling stream at
the track-side, and a simple-hearted young man, knowing naught of the
artificialities and much of the things that are, at her elbow.

The train of reflection paused when they reached the sitting-room of the
private car, but it went on again when the President's daughter had
curled herself into the depths of a great wicker sleepy-hollow to watch
the unending procession of stubble-fields slipping past the car window.
How artlessly devoted he had been, this earnest young private in the
great business army; so different from--well, from Chester Fleetwell,
for example. Chester's were the manners of a later day; a day in which
the purely social distinctions of sex are much ignored. That, too, was
pleasant, in its way. And yet there was something very charming in the
elder fashion.

And Mr. Brockway knew his role and played it well--if, indeed, it were a
role, which she very much doubted. Old school manners are not to be put
on and off like a garment, nor is sincerity to be aped as a fad. Just
here reflection became speculative. What had become of Mr. Brockway
since their "Mormon day"? Had he gone on with his school-mistresses and
ended by marrying one of them? There was something repellent in the
thought of his marrying any one, but when reason demanded a reason,
Gertrude's father had joined her.

"I hope we shall be able to have dinner in the car," the President said,
drawing up a chair. "I stumbled upon a young mechanic when I went
forward to inquire about the eating-station, and he agreed to repair the
range this afternoon."

"How fortunate!"

"Yes," the President rejoined; and then he began to debate with himself
as to the strict truth of the affirmative, and the conversation
languished.

Meanwhile, Brockway had hastened out to the engine at the cry of "All
aboard!" The 828 was sobbing for the start when he