’The gentleman?  I saw no gentleman, my dear.  I suppose he was a small clerk, or something of the sort, and he had no business whatever to address us.’

’Oh, but he only said good morning, and apologised for sitting at our table.  He needn’t have apologised at all.’

‘Precisely.  That is just what I mean,’ said Mr. Whiston with self-satisfaction.  ’My dear Rose, if I had been alone, I might perhaps have talked a little, but with you it was impossible.  One cannot be too careful.  A man like that will take all sorts of liberties.  One has to keep such people at a distance.

A moment’s pause, then Rose spoke with unusual decision—­

’I feel quite sure, father, that he would not have taken liberties.  It seems to me that he knew quite well how to behave himself.’

Mr. Whiston grew still more puzzled.  He closed his book to meditate this new problem.

‘One has to lay down rules,’ fell from him at length, sententiously.  ’Our position, Rose, as I have often explained, is a delicate one.  A lady in circumstances such as yours cannot exercise too much caution.  Your natural associates are in the world of wealth; unhappily, I cannot make you wealthy.  We have to guard our self-respect, my dear child.  Really, it is not safe to talk with strangers—­least of all at an inn.  And you have only to remember that disgusting conversation about beer!’

Rose said no more.  Her father pondered a little, felt that he had delivered his soul, and resumed the book.

The next morning they were early at the station to secure good places for the long journey to London.  Up to almost the last moment it seemed that they would have a carriage to themselves.  Then the door suddenly opened, a bag was flung on to the seat, and after it came a hot, panting man, a red-haired man, recognised immediately by both the travellers.

‘I thought I’d missed it!’ ejaculated the intruder merrily.

Mr. Whiston turned his head away, disgust transforming his countenance.  Rose sat motionless, her eyes cast down.  And the stranger mopped his forehead in silence.

He glanced at her; he glanced again and again; and Rose was aware of every look.  It did not occur to her to feel offended.  On the contrary, she fell into a mood of tremulous pleasure, enhanced by every turn of the stranger’s eyes in her direction.  At him she did not look, yet she saw him.  Was it a coarse face? she asked herself.  Plain, perhaps, but decidedly not vulgar.  The red hair, she thought, was not disagreeably red; she didn’t dislike that shade of colour.  He was humming a tune; it seemed to be his habit, and it argued healthy cheerfulness.  Meanwhile Mr. Whiston sat stiffly in his corner, staring at the landscape, a model of respectable muteness.

At the first stop another man entered.  This time, unmistakably, a commercial traveller.  At once a dialogue sprang up between him and Rufus.  The traveller complained that all the smoking compartments were full.