come to his knowledge.

"We were a few hours out from Liverpool," he began, "and the
smoking-room of the Russia was pretty well filled with all sorts of men,
none of whom of course felt much at home yet, but who were gradually
being shaken together by the civilizing influence of tobacco and the
occasional lurches that the cross-chop of the Channel was favoring us
with. I was sitting near the door with a man from Boston whom I found on
board returning from a wedding-trip, and who, I discovered, had taken
orders since leaving Harvard, where I had known him slightly as a
bookish sort of fellow and not very agreeable; but as I was alone and
his wife was quite pretty, I was glad to meet him.

"Well, we were running over old times, without paying much attention to
the guide-book talk that was being poured out round us, when somebody
laid a hand on my shoulder and one of the most attractive voices I ever
heard asked 'if there was room for a stranger from Texas?' This formal
announcement of himself by a newcomer made a little lull in the
conversation, but my friend made room for him in our corner, and he
quietly enveloped himself in smoke for the rest of the evening.

"He was not inattentive, though, to the drift of our talk, for when
Hamilton mentioned having been at the Pan-Anglican, and spoke of the
effect such conventions should produce, the Texan's cigar came out of
his mouth and his blue eyes grew deeper in their sockets as he
interrupted us with the remark: 'The conventions of all the Bible-men in
the world would not have made La Junta any better if it had not been for
Kitty. You know what Junta was before she came?' he continued, seeing us
look a little surprised--'nothing but cards and drink, and--worse; and
now'--and he laid his hand on his hip as if from habit--'now we have no
trouble there any more.'

"The oddness of the expression 'Bible-men,' I remember, struck me at the
time, but Hamilton made some explanatory reply, for the quiet force of
the soft voice had a certain persuasiveness about it without the aid of
his gesture, although the smoke was so thick that we could not see
whether he carried the instruments of his country or not.

"Standing by the aft wheel-house, I found the Texan the next morning
throwing biscuits to the gulls and gazing wistfully seaward.

"'Your first visit to Europe?' I said, steadying myself by the rail.

"'Yes, but I would give all last year's herd if I had never come, for
Kitty