and the
lawless travellers, if men are not afraid to encounter them, surely a
woman need not be."

"Be cautious, Miselle. This grain of practicability in the shape of
Friend Williams is spoiling the unity of your plan. At first it was a
charmingly consistent absurdity."

"But now?"

"Now it is merely foolishly hazardous, and I suppose you will undertake
it. It is your _kismet_; it is Fate; and what am I, to resist Destiny?
Go, child,--my blessing and my bank-book are your own."

"And '_Je suis Tedesco!_'" pompously quoted Miselle; so no more was said
upon the subject, until the young woman, having received an answer to
her letter, claimed the treasures promised by Caleb, and shortly after
fared forth upon her adventurous way.

The journey from Boston to New York has for most persons lost the
excitement of novelty; but excitement of another sort is to be obtained
by choosing a route where mile after mile of the roadway is lined with
wrecks of recent accidents, and the papers sold in the cars brim over
with horrible details of death and maiming in consequence. Nor can it be
considered either wholesome or comfortable to be removed in the middle
of a November night from a warm car to a ferry-boat, and thence to
another train of cars without fire and almost without seats,--the
suggestive apology being, that so many carriages had been "smashed"
lately that the enterprising managers of the road had been obliged to
buy an old excursion-train from another company. Meantime, what became
of the unfortunate women who had no kind companion to purvey for them
blankets and pillows from the mephitic sleeping-car, and cups of hot tea
from unknown sources, Miselle cannot conjecture.

New York at midday, from the standpoint of Fifth Avenue or Central Park,
is a very splendid and attractive place, we shall all agree; but New
York involved in a wilderness of railway station at six o'clock of a
rainy autumn morning is quite the reverse. Cabmen, draymen, porters, all
assume a new ferocity of bearing, horses are more cruelly lashed,
ignorant wayfarers more crushingly snubbed, new trunks more recklessly
smashed, than would be possible at a later hour of the day; and that
large class of persons who may be denominated intermittent gentlemen
fold up their politeness with their travelling-shawls and put it away
for a future occasion.

Solaced by a breakfast and rest, Miselle bade good-bye to her attentive
escort, and set forth alone to vie