Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 7.djvu/49

Rh day I had the patience to read the New York Herald from beginning to end under these circumstances, and judge if I was rewarded for my trouble when I turned to the column headed "Private"; "M. X. begs the pretty Miss Z, whom he met yesterday in Twenty-fifth Street omnibus, to come to him to-morrow, at his rooms, No. 17, St. Nicholas Hotel; he wishes to speak of marriage with her." What did the pretty Miss Z do? I don't even care to know.

I passed the whole of the afternoon in the grand saloon talking, and observing what was going on about me. Conversation could not fail to be interesting, for my friend Dean Pitferge was sitting near me.

"Have you quite recovered from the effects of your tumble?" I asked him.

"Perfectly," replied he, "but it's no go."

"What is no go? You?"

"No, our steamship; the screw boilers are not working well; we cannot get enough pressure."

"You are anxious, then, to get to New York?"

"Not in the least; I speak as an engineer, that is all. I am very comfortable here, and shall sincerely regret leavingthis collection of originals which chance has thrown together for my recreation."

"Originals!" cried I, looking at the passengers who crowded the saloon; "but all those people are very much alike."

"Nonsense!" exclaimed the Doctor, "one can see you have hardly looked at them; the species is the same, I allow, but in that species what a variety there is! Just notice that group of men down there, with their easy-going air, their legs stretched on the sofas, and hats screwed down on their heads. They are Yankees, pure Yankees, from the small states of Maine, Vermont, and Connecticut, the produce of New England. Energetic and intelligent men, rather too much influenced by 'the Reverends,' and who have the disagreeable fault of never putting their hands before their mouths when they sneeze. Ah! my dear sir, they are true Saxons, always keenly alive to a bargain; put two Yankees in a room together, and in an hour they will each have gained ten dollars from the other."

"I will not ask how," replied I, smiling at the Doctor, "but among them I see a little man with a consequential