The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-02

| most convenient bag IN Wnlch kePt my
keys, my purse, and few other indispensa,
| BILE articles), and my parasol, umbrella, and
1 dressing-case. Nothing was disturbed; VINO
| then had heaved the deep sigh that had ioi-
lowed 80 Immediately upon my httle out
break of selfcongratulation Eltner my
senses must have played me talse, OF 1 myseu
] must have sighed without knowing it. Fancy
is capable of strange pranks, and this is a
| specimen of them, thought |; but at that very
| moment / heard low sound, something be-
tween a groan and a growl, and then rus
Ting noise that appeared to proceed from be-
meath the seat opposite to me, and on the
elastic cushions of which my feet were COM
fOrtably reposing. l snatched them away,
now-my feet, mean-more abruptly than
was consistent with the elegant placidity that
l had always maintained to be the true de-
department for gentlewoman. am sure, this
time, that my ears had not deceived me-
But what could be the origin of the extra
ordinary sounds that had thus broken in upon
my reveriel The idea of ghosts sternly re-
Duked. nave always, as rule, set my face
against ghosts. | am a sound churchwoman,
l hope, and not superstitious, and / have
. never countenanced any of the idle talk of the
younger generation of my neighbors with
regard to spirit-knocks and table turning,
things which | am certain my late lamented
father, Dr. Prym, would never have permitted
in his parish. Besides, though have heard
Of haunted houses, never did happen to hear
of a haunted railway carriage. The notion
was preposterous. But again came the same
sound, the growl this time predominating
over the groan, and the stealthy rustling
noise increased, and / saw the valance
opposite to me shake violently. l grew
excessively nervous. What had / got
for a fellOw-traveller 2 Then the idea flashed
upon me that the creature concealed beneath
the drab drapery in front of me was probably
nd eli i1vJ J,1o l,xyo 1;eI
master who preferred to make the company
carry his canine favorite gratis to providing
quarters for him in the regular doggery, or
whatever they call it.
There was some relief in that supposition,
but, even then, my position was far from being
an agreeable one. / am one of those persons
who dislike dogs except, of course, in their
proper place. And their proper place is not
where ] am. l have all my life, too, had
lively fear of hydrophobia, and the idea that
strange dog-and large one, to judge by the
disturbance that it made in dragging
itself over the foor-was boxed up
with me, and with no one to keep
it in order, was very unwelcome. What
might the brute do, if irritated l determined
to be conciliatory, and yet on the alert, SO
that while | picked up my parasol as the
readiest weapon l could find, in case of sud
den rush, l said, in a coaxing tone, "Poor
fellow pooty fellow good dogl'' A hoarse,
gurgling noise, resembling the deep, harsh
gurrh gGrrh that / once heard from two
savage mastifs, worrying one another at the
corner of the street, replied to my endear-
ments, and already in imagination l felt the
beasts sharp teeth close upon my ankle, but
in sugared accents l resumed:-"Poor fellow,
poor" when l beheld a sight that stopped
the words on my lips, froze the blood in my
veins, and turned me, for the moment, into
stone.
The tapping drab valance was lifted, and
out popped head-not the head Of dog.
Timid as | am when confronted by these ami
mails, | should infinitely have preferred to set
eyes upon the sleek coat and black muzzle and
grinning teeth of even bulldog, to the shock
ing reality of the case. This was the head of
a man. l sat, gasping and staring, with my
useless parasol pointed at the intruder. All
that had ever heard or read, of atrocities
perpetrated in railway travel, stories of mad
men, of felons, and of Tiotous wretches wild
with drink, came crowdlng upon my mind at
once. And here was l, in a fair way myself to
Supply the raw material for a sensational para
graph in the newspapers; l, Prunella Prym,
the very last person that any acquaintance of
hers would have supposed likely to figure,
however blamelessly, in the grim column of
accidents and otfenses. thought of all this
as gazed, horror-stricken, at the face before
me- the face of a man of forty years of age,
brown beard like the name of an ugly lion.
How long looked at this unwelcome appari-
tion cannot tell; but was recalled at once to
a sense of decorum and of the peril of my posi-
tion, by the rude remark, in a rough north
country accent, 'Hope you'll know me again,
old lady that's all ~
1t was with an Englishman, then that had
to deal. There was one comfort in that, for at
least could beg my life with certainty of
! being understood, whereas l might find the
irregular verbs and the genders horribly in
| my way in the attempt to mollify foreign
scOundrel. l had discovered since crossing the
channel that my French, learned as it had
been at the selectest of select seminaries, and
| from a native with a Partisan accent, was
! had been declared to be in theory. 1t was, in
fact, what an amusing literary gentleman
| whom met at one of our Cheltenham tea
| parties described as the French of Stratford-
atte-Bowe, rather than the French of Paris.
1t was preferable to appeal to the better feel
ings OF ruthan of ones own country and
! speech.
Meanwhile the body had followed the head
in struggling out from underneath the seat,
and the whole man stood on the floor of the
swaying carriage, which in that part of the
| journey rocked and jerked good deal, so that
he had to lay hold of the padded partition
next to him to steady himself. He was very
| red in the face, and he painted for BREATH and
| groaned as he stretched his limbs. "Cramped
| in every joint, and as near being smothered as
ever a chap was ~ grumbled the man. "You
don't know how hot and close it is under
there, ma'am, breathing what seems more
| II i 4. II -. -