Page:Walpole--portrait of man with red hair.djvu/22

 were almost asleep, and in another moment it would have been down your back."

He was not the old man you would have expected to see in an English first-class carriage, save that now in these democratic days you may see any one anywhere. But first-class fares are so expensive. Perhaps that is why it is only the really poor who can afford them. The old man, who was thin and wiry, had large shabby boots, loose and ancient trousers, a flopping garden straw hat. His hands were gnarled like the knots of trees. He was terribly clean. He had blue eyes. On his knees was a large basket and from this he ate his massive luncheon—here an immense sandwich with pieces of ham like fragments of banners, there a colossal apple, a monstrous pear—

"Going far?" munched the old man.

"No," said Harkness, blushing again. "To Treliss. I change at Trewth, I believe. We should be there at 4.30."

"Should be," said the old man, dribbling through his pear. "The train's late.... Another tourist," he added suddenly.

"I beg your pardon?" said Harkness.

"Another of these damned tourists. You are, I mean. I lived at Treliss. Such as you drove me away."

"I am sorry," said Harkness, smiling faintly. "I suppose I am that if by tourist you mean some-