thout feeling
the youthful need of relating them to others. It was the girl in the
opposite seat who had roused in him the dormant habit of comparison.
She was distinguished from the daughters of wealth by her avowed
acquaintance with the real business of living, a familiarity as
different as possible from their theoretical proficiency; yet it seemed
to Darrow that her experience had made her free without hardness and
self-assured without assertiveness.

The rush into Amiens, and the flash of the station lights into their
compartment, broke Miss Viner's sleep, and without changing her position
she lifted her lids and looked at Darrow. There was neither surprise nor
bewilderment in the look. She seemed instantly conscious, not so much
of where she was, as of the fact that she was with him; and that fact
seemed enough to reassure her. She did not even turn her head to look
out; her eyes continued to rest on him with a vague smile which appeared
to light her face from within, while her lips kept their sleepy droop.

Shouts and the hurried tread of travellers came to them through the
confusing cross-lights of the platform. A head appeared at the window,
and Darrow threw himself forward to defend their solitude; but the
intruder was only a train hand going his round of inspection. He passed
on, and the lights and cries of the station dropped away, merged in a
wider haze and a hollower resonance, as the train gathered itself up
with a long shake and rolled out again into the darkness.

Miss Viner's head sank back against the cushion, pushing out a dusky
wave of hair above her forehead. The swaying of the train loosened a
lock over her ear, and she shook it back with a movement like a boy's,
while her gaze still rested on her companion.

"You're not too tired?"

She shook her head with a smile.

"We shall be in before midnight. We're very nearly on time." He verified
the statement by holding up his watch to the lamp.

She nodded dreamily. "It's all right. I telegraphed Mrs. Farlow that
they mustn't think of coming to the station; but they'll have told the
concierge to look out for me."

"You'll let me drive you there?"

She nodded again, and her eyes closed. It was very pleasant to Darrow
that she made no effort to talk or to dissemble her sleepiness. He sat
watching her till the upper lashes met and mingled with the lower,
and their blent shadow lay on her cheek; then he stood up and drew the
curtain over the lam