in which to travel great distances, are
very remarkable for their many strange adventures, and I was very much
interested but also perturbed when the black _garcon_ placed my
bag and overcoat upon the floor at the feet of a very prim lady and
left me to stand uncomfortably in the aisle before her.

"Your seat, sir, upper five," he said, and departed with my fifty
centimes, which is called a dime in America.

In the little division which I could see was marked five were two nice
seats that were to each other face to face, but it appeared that
neither of them was vacant for Mr. Robert Carruthers. On one the lady
sat with very stiff black silk skirts projecting from her sides, as
did her thin elbows also in the stiffness of white linen. Beside her,
occupying the rest of her seat, was a hat with large black bows of
equal stiffness with the rest of the lady's apparel and disposition
not to be friendly. On the seat opposite, which from the nature of my
ticket and the case I should have supposed belonged to me, were piled
two large bundles, a shiny black bag, a black silk coat, also stiff
like the lady, an umbrella, two magazines and a basket of fruit. No
place was apparent for me or my bags or my overcoat. It seemed as if
it would be best for me to stand in the middle of the car all the way
to the State of Harpeth so that the lady's stiffness be not
disarranged. I did not know what I should do, and my knees began again
to feel weak in that gray tweed and to be cold for their accustomed
skirts, but the lady looked out of the window and said not a single
word. I did not have any convenient cup of tea in my hand to throw in
that lady's face in a manner that would not be permitted a gentleman,
but if I had had the very lovely lorgnette that has descended to me
from my Great Grandmamma, the wife of the old Flanders grandsire, I
would have settled the matter with very little trouble in an entirely
ladylike manner. As it was, I did not know what to do but stand and
then stand longer. Just at the moment when I began to feel that I
would either be forced to forget that I was a gentleman or to faint as
a lady, a very nice man touched me on the elbow and said:

"Just drop your bag on her feet and come into the smoker. She's got
your game beat," and he passed on down the aisle of that car. I acted
upon that very kind advice and I am glad that from the weight of the
bag I got at least a small action from the stiff lady if only a groan