ened my
gold-piece. The wind drove across the open space in a strong gust as I
stepped down upon the pavement. A man had just descended from the roof,
and was paying the conductor: a tall, burly man, wearing a thick
water-proof coat, and a seaman's hat of oil-skin, with a long flap lying
over the back of his neck. His face was brown and weather-beaten, but he
had kindly-looking eyes, which glanced at me as I stood waiting to pay
my fare.

"Going down to Southampton?" said the conductor to him.

"Ay, and beyond Southampton," he answered.

"You'll have a rough night of it," said the conductor.--"Sixpence, if
you please, miss."

I offered him my Australian sovereign, which he turned over curiously,
asking me if I had no smaller change. He grumbled when I answered no,
and the stranger, who had not passed on, but was listening to what was
said, turned pleasantly to me.

"You have no change, mam'zelle?" he asked, speaking rather slowly, as if
English was not his ordinary speech. "Very well! are you going to
Southampton?"

"Yes, by the next train," I answered, deciding upon that course without
hesitation.

"So am I, mam'zelle," he said, raising his hand to his oil-skin cap; "I
will pay this sixpence, and you can give it me again, when you buy your
ticket in the office."

I smiled quickly, gladly; and he smiled back upon me, but gravely, as if
his face was not used to a smile. I passed on into the station, where a
train was standing, and people hurrying about the platform, choosing
their carriages. At the ticket-office they changed my Australian
gold-piece without a word; and I sought out my seaman friend to return
the sixpence he had paid to me. He had done me a greater kindness than
he could ever know, and I thanked him heartily. His honest, deep-set,
blue eyes glistened under their shaggy eyebrows as they looked down upon
me.

"Can I do nothing more for you, mam'zelle?" he asked. "Shall I see after
your luggage?"

"Oh! that will be all right, thank you," I replied, "but is this the
train for Southampton, and how soon will it start?"

I was watching anxiously the stream of people going to and fro, lest I
should see some person who knew me. Yet who was there in London who
could know me?

"It will be off in five minutes," answered the seaman. "Shall I look out
a carriage for you?"

He was somewhat careful in making his selection; finally he put me into
a compartment where there were only two ladies, and he st