understand it better," said Carlton.

The steamer reached Southampton early in the afternoon, and Carlton
secured a special compartment on the express to London for Mrs. Downs
and her niece and himself, with one adjoining for their maid and Nolan.
It was a beautiful day, and Carlton sat with his eyes fixed upon the
passing fields and villages, exclaiming with pleasure from time to time
at the white roads and the feathery trees and hedges, and the red roofs
of the inns and square towers of the village churches.

"Hedges are better than barbed-wire fences, aren't they?" he said.
"You see that girl picking wild flowers from one of them? She looks
just as though she were posing for a picture for an illustrated paper.
She couldn't pick flowers from a barbed-wire fence, could she? And
there would probably be a tramp along the road somewhere to frighten
her; and see--the chap in knickerbockers farther down the road leaning
on the stile. I am sure he is waiting for her; and here comes a
coach," he ran on. "Don't the red wheels look well against the hedges?
It's a pretty little country, England, isn't it?--like a private park
or a model village. I am glad to get back to it--I am glad to see the
three-and-six signs with the little slanting dash between the shillings
and pennies. Yes, even the steam-rollers and the man with the red flag
in front are welcome."

"I suppose," said Mrs. Downs, "it's because one has been so long on the
ocean that the ride to London seems so interesting. It always pays me
for the entire trip. Yes," she said, with a sigh, "in spite of the
patent-medicine signs they have taken to putting up all along the road.
It seems a pity they should adopt our bad habits instead of our good
ones."

"They are a bit slow at adopting anything," commented Carlton. "Did
you know, Mrs. Downs, that electric lights are still as scarce in
London as they are in Timbuctoo? Why, I saw an electric-light plant
put up in a Western town in three days once; there were over a hundred
burners in one saloon, and the engineer who put them up told me in
confidence that--"

What the chief engineer told him in confidence was never disclosed, for
at that moment Miss Morris interrupted him with a sudden sharp
exclamation.

"Oh, Mr. Carlton," she exclaimed, breathlessly, "listen to this!" She
had been reading one of the dozen papers which Carlton had purchased at
the station, and was now shaking one of them at him, with her