s seemingly of a nature to attract the attention of the most
indifferent. At all events Mr. Byrd considered it so; and, after one
comprehensive glance at the elegant stranger, that took in not only the
personal characteristics I have noted, but also the frown of deep
thought or anxious care that furrowed a naturally smooth forehead, he
passed quietly up the room and took his stand among the group of
loungers there assembled.

Mr. Byrd was not unknown to the _habitues_ of that place, and no
cessation took place in the conversation. They were discussing an
occurrence slight enough in itself, but made interesting and dramatic by
the unconscious enthusiasm of the chief speaker, a young fellow of
indifferent personal appearance, but with a fervid flow of words and a
knack at presenting a subject that reminded you of the actor's power,
and made you as anxious to watch his gesticulations as to hear the words
that accompanied them.

"I tell you," he was saying, "that it was just a leaf out of a play. I
never saw its equal off the stage. She was so handsome, so impressive in
her trouble or anxiety, or whatever it was that agitated her, and he so
dark, and so determined in _his_ trouble or anxiety, or whatever it was
that agitated him. They came in at different doors, she at one side of
the depot and he at another, and they met just where I could see them
both, directly in the centre of the room. 'You!' was her involuntary
cry, and she threw up her hands before her face just as if she had seen
a ghost or a demon. An equal exclamation burst from him, but he did not
cover his eyes, only stood and looked at her as if he were turned to
stone. In another moment she dropped her hands. 'Were you coming to see
_me_?' came from her lips in a whisper so fraught with secret horror and
anguish that it curdled my blood to hear it. 'Were you coming to see
_me_?' was his response, uttered in an equally suppressed voice and with
an equal intensity of expression. And then, without either giving an
answer to the other's question, they both shrank back, and, turning,
fled with distracted looks, each by the way they had come, the two doors
closing with a simultaneous bang that echoed through that miserable
depot like a knell. There were not many folks in the room just at that
minute, but I tell you those that were looked at each other as they had
not done before and would not be likely to do again. Some unhappy
tragedy underlies such a meeting and