nd.

"'Pardon me, madame,' I said in French, 'but unless you travel some
distance this is the last station where you can get anything to eat.'

"She started, and looked about helplessly. 'I am not hungry. I cannot
eat--but I suppose I should.'

"'Permit me;' and I sprang from the carriage, and caught a waiter with a
tray before the guard reclosed the doors. She drank the coffee, tasted the
fruit, thanking me in a low, sweet voice, and said:--

"'You are very considerate. It will help me to bear my journey. I am very
tired, and weaker than I thought; for I have not slept for many nights.'

"I expressed my sympathy, and ended by telling her I hoped we could keep
the carriage to ourselves; she might then sleep undisturbed. She looked at
me fixedly, a curious startled expression crossing her face, but made no
reply.

"Almost every man is drawn, I think, to a sad or tired woman. There is a
look about the eyes that makes an instantaneous draft on the sympathies.
So, when these slight confidences of my companion confirmed my misgivings
as to her own weariness, I at once began diverting her as best I could
with some account of my summer's experience in Venice, and with such of my
plans for the future as at the moment filled my mind. I was younger
then,--perhaps only a year or two her senior,--and you know one is not
given to much secrecy at twenty-six: certainly not with a gentle lady
whose good-will you are trying to gain, and whose sorrowful face, as I
have said, enlists your sympathy at sight. Then, to establish some sort of
footing for myself, I drifted into an account of my own home life; telling
her of my mother and sisters, of the social customs of our country, of the
freedom given the women,--so different from what I had seen abroad,--of
their perfect safety everywhere.

"We had been talking in this vein some time, she listening quietly until
something I said reacted in a slight curl of her lips,--more incredulous
than contemptuous, perhaps, but significant all the same; for, lifting her
eyes, she answered slowly and meaningly:--

"'It must be a paradise for women. I am glad to believe that there is one
corner of the earth where they are treated with respect. My own
experiences have been so different that I have begun to believe that none
of us are safe after we leave our cradles.' Then, as if suddenly realizing
the inference, the color mounting to her cheeks, she added: 'But please do
not misunderstand me. I am