ime against the nation to undo a strap till some superior officer
arrived to take the responsibility of so rash a step.

If they had comprehended the dire threats, the personal remarks, and
unmitigated scorn of those three fair travellers, the blue-coated
imbeciles would have been reduced to submission. Fortunately the great
man came in time to save them from utter rout; for the ladies were just
trying to decide whether to go and leave the luggage to its fate, or to
haul it forth and depart _vi et armis_, when a stout old party came,
saw, said, 'It is nothing; pass the trunk; a thousand pardons, Madame,'
and peace was restored.

Instantly the porters, who till then had stood back, eyeing the
innocent, black ark, as if it was an infernal machine liable to explode
at a touch, threw themselves upon it, bore it forth, and heaving it atop
of an omnibus, returned to demand vast sums for having waited so long.

Then was Amanda sublime; then did her comrades for the first time learn
the magnitude of her powers, and realise the treasure they possessed.
Stowing Matilda and the smaller traps in the bus, and saying to Lavinia,
'Stand by me,' this dauntless maid faced one dozen blue-bloused,
black-bearded, vociferous, demonstrative Frenchmen; and, calmly offering
the proper sum, refused to add one sou more.

Vainly the drivers perjured themselves in behalf of the porters; vainly
the guard looked on, with imposing uniforms, and impertinent
observations; vainly Mat cried imploringly, 'Pay anything, and let us
get off before there is a mob'--still the indomitable Amanda held forth
the honest franc; and, when no one would take it, laid it on the post,
and entering the omnibus, drove calmly away.

'What should we do without you?' sighed Lavinia, with fervent gratitude.

'Be cheated right and left, and never know it, dear,' responded Amanda,
preparing for another fight with the omnibus-driver.

And she had it; for, unwarned by the fate of the porters, this
short-sighted man insisted on carrying the ladies to a dirty little
hotel to dine, though expressly ordered to go at once to the station.
Nothing would induce them to alight, though the landlord came out in
person and begged them to do so; and, after a protracted struggle and a
drive all over the town, they finally reached the depot.

Here another demand for double fare was promptly quenched by an appeal
to the _chef de station_, who, finding that Mademoiselle was wide awake,
cr