Page:Stories told to a child.djvu/158

 He laid as strong an emphasis on the must, as if to turn her out was a stringent duty. Perhaps she thought so, for as she glanced, in rising, at the child, she said, with a smile at the youth, who was quite young enough to be her son, 'Certainly you have an undoubted right to this seat;' and then added, 'but I suppose no one would have disputed your right to give it up to me, if you had chosen.'

Her easy self-possession, and perhaps her remark, made him look a little awkward; but as the lady rose, my brother changed places with the child, and thus they still sat together; and while the youth settled himself in the place he had a right to, our train set off with one of those thrice horrible, wavering, and querulous screeches of which the Great Northern has a monopoly.

While we went through the first tunnel, rending the air all the time with terrific shrieks, the little girl held tightly by her mother's hand, and two large tears rolled down her rosy face. 'We shall soon be at Hornsey,' said her mother, and accordingly in a few minutes we stopped, and while the lady and child disappeared from our view, the owner of the seat ejaculated, 'Cool!' and then looking round the carriage, he continued, as appealing to those who were sure to agree with him—'When a man has a right to a thing, why, he has a right; but to have a right to waive a right, is a dodge that a man wouldn't expect to be told of.'

This most lucid speech he closed with a general smile, and we set ofF again with another shriek, longer and shriller than the former one. Rh