s country
cousin. And my tale has nothing in the world to do with the speed or
slowness of the car, anyway.

My friend took his seat, and presently began to be very uncomfortable.
For everybody seemed amused at him, glances were levelled in his
direction, girls giggled, elderly ladies drew their faces into a pucker,
and the atmosphere of the place was as electric as the fluid which sent
the car through space. After a short interval the puzzled gentleman
discovered that it was not he who was the object of mirth to his
comrades on the road, but a poor, shy, blushing, tearful, trembling,
frightened girl who was sitting by his side. She, poor child, was
dressed in an outre fashion, which did not please the set of people in
that conveyance, and, evidently, she had met with an accident, for her
clothing was tumbled and torn, her face was bruised and cut, and one
hand had been wrenched and seemed to be paining her very much. I can
imagine nothing more brutally ill-bred and rudely ignorant and unfeeling
than the behavior of those silly girls and boys, and still more silly
grown-up people in that car. Can you? They were laughing at a child who
had met with an accident on her wheel!

Now, for an opposite picture. One afternoon lately, at the terminus of a
great railroad, in a crowded waiting-room, a foreign lady with her
attendants attracted some observation, but was neither stared nor
laughed at. Yet her costume was really extraordinary. Around her neck
she wore a dozen chains of gold, linked together and sparkling with rare
gems. The chains hung to her waist, and gleamed like a gorgeous
breast-plate. Pendants of diamonds hung from her small brown ears. Her
small dark hands were loaded with jewelled rings; her head was enveloped
in many folds of white silken gauze. Open-worked silk stockings covered
her little feet, and she wore high-heeled slippers with painted toes.
Her travelling-gown was a rich shimmering brocade, ill fitting and with
a long train. Her maids, one fair and white, the other black as ebony,
were loaded with baskets and bundles, and her servitor held in leash two
magnificent collies, while a green and yellow parrot chattered from his
perch on the man's arm.

All this was a sight to arouse attention and excite curiosity, but
_this_ was a well-bred throng of people gathered in the waiting-room,
and the lady, probably a princess from some tropic island, was annoyed
by no looks, laughter, or remarks.

One of th