I
So this was England.
A slight, pretty girl, in a corner seat of the boat express, was
looking out of the window. To her everything was new and odd and a face
curiously expressive was quick to register its emotions.
All was on a scale so much less than the land from which she had
come. The neatly parcelled acres somehow reminded her of Noah’s ark.
Farmsteads trim and tiny; amusing hedgerows; the cattle and horses
in the fields; the comic little villages, each with its moss-grown
church tower peering through the damp mist, were so expected and yet so
unnatural to the eye of a stranger that it was rather like a scene in a
play.
The girl was in the compartment alone. By her side was a “grip,” cheap
looking, battered, with an air of travel; in the rack, above her head,
was its fellow with a mackintosh and an umbrella. Like their owner,
these articles had a subtle air of the second rate. Yet the girl
herself, had she known how to wear her clothes, which were not bad of
their kind, had certain points that seemed to promise a way out.
For one thing, she was alive. Grey eyes, shrewd, keen and clear,
looking out from under the brim of a hat that had a touch of
smartness, seemed to absorb every detail of this film reeled off at the
rate of sixty miles an hour. It was like the movies, but less exciting.
Not that the traveller craved excitement. This trip to an unknown land
was far from being a pleasure jaunt.
So intent were the grey eyes in absorbing a scene which was a good deal
below expectation, that they were not content with the window against
which her elbow pressed. Now and then they roved to the left across
the narrow corridor, for a glimpse of the more distant view. Broadly
speaking, this, too, was a washout. The mist, clammy and all-pervading,
might have a lot to do with the general effect, but England, so far,
was nothing to write home about.
Disappointment already loomed in a receptive mind, when a man appeared
in the corridor. He gazed through the glass at the compartment’s
sole occupant; then he came in and closed the door carefully. With
a quiet air he took a corner seat immediately facing the girl. She
had a feeling that she had seen him before; but where or in what
circumstances she could not say. Indeed, so vague was her memory
that she soon decided it was a mere reaction to the man’s striking
personality.
He was not a man to forget. Big, handsome, muscular, clean and trim,
he had all the snap of the smart New Yorker. Evidently he went to good
tailors and he paid for dressing.
He raised his ten-dollar Stetson with an air of class. “Miss Durrance!”
The girl gave a start and coloured hotly.
“Don’t remember me, eh, Miss Durrance?”
It was clear that she didn’t. But he remembered her, and the calm
enforcement of his knowledge in a tone near the familiar flecked the
girl’s cheek with a picturesque confusion.
“Can’t say I do.”
At the awkward answer his eyes twinkled into a slow, bright smile.
“Myself, I never forget a face or a name.”
The voice sounded oddly familiar, but she could not recall it. Not able
to place this man, the effort to do so teased her forehead into a frown.
“My job, you see, to remember folks.”
She half resented the cool laugh. “Not sure I want to remember
everybody.”
“I’ll say not. Pikers good and plenty don’t want to remember me.” His
tone was jocular, but there was something in it beyond mere banter.
Mame Durrance realised suddenly that she had taken a strong dislike
to the man opposite. He realised it, too. The breadth of his smile
became aggressive. As her eyes met it they received a challenge which
they were too proud to accept. She withdrew them quickly and looked
ostentatiously away through the carriage window.
Even the English scene, as much as was visible, could not divert her
mind from a gentle snigger that stole upon her ear. Whoever this man
was she hoped he would go. But he showed not a sign. Settling into the
opposite corner, he sprawled his long legs, brushing her knees as he
did so, and finally crossed them. And then, past master of the art of
making himself offensive, he began to hum softly, but in a way to keep
in the middle of her consciousness.
“Miss Durrance.” The voice was mild but half a sneer was in it.
Somehow “it got her goat” to have his conversation thrust upon her
after she had taken pains to let him know that she had no use for it.
Anger made her eyes sparkle. “You quit,” she said. “Beat it.”
Rude, certainly, but she meant it to be. But in that art, too, he had
nothing to learn. “Now, then, Miss Durrance, come off it.” His laugh
was hateful.
One outstanding detail of the compartment there was, which the
sharp-eyed traveller had already noted. A metal disc fixed below
the luggage rack was within reach. It was adorned by the words, “To
communicate with the Attendant, pull the handle.”
On the spur of the moment she half turned and raised her hand. But the
voice of the man opposite grew instantly so full of menace that she
felt a little frightened.
“Can that, Miss Durrance, or I’ll have to make it hot for you.”