The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1868-08-20
A NIGHT IN A RAILWAY CARRIAGE.

WIN my iiueoanu w 1taly. Ii was oeA
wedding tour. Since then many things
have changed. As look in the glass,
/ it may be that my face has not SO much,
color as it did then, but the memory of
| that journey remains as fresh as if we had
| only set out yesterday.
/ went the same route the other day,
and I tried hard to kindle the embers of
my lost enthusiasm, but I might as well
hope to change my steady sober self into
the happy laughing girl of twenty years
| ago.
1t was, as I said before, our wedding
tour and we had loitered so long and so
pleasantly on the way, that, although it
! was summer when we started, winter was
fast closing in before we could make up
our minds to quit Paris and follow out our
original plan of wintering in Italy. An
uncle of my husbands was living in Mar
seilles and that was to be our first resting
place. 1t was Christmas-eve before our
| last purchases were finally made, and we
and our belongings were whizzing down
| in an express train to Marseilles l can
perfectly recall my feeling on the morning
of the Oath Of December, in the year Is.
1t was bitterly cold when we left Paris,
showing and hailing heavily at intervals,
and all the bright weather we had been
enjoying for weeks, gone. felt gloomy
and depressed, and as if a new chapter In
my life were about to begin. [ was very
sorry to leave Paris, and felt very nervous
| at meeting relations quite new to me, and
being moreover not little spoiled by the
exclusive devotion of my husband, felt
slightly aggrieved and decidedly jealous at
the evident pleasure with which he was
looking forward to meeting his own peo-
pie. He grew animated in his description
of his favorite cousin Emily, and expressed
q CIR J,nf, olD1 IL ~
tiers, and as for Charley he was the hand
soonest and incest fellow in the world, and
so on, until the shortness of my answers,
and the general sulkiness of my manner
damped his ardor, and my having recourse
to the usual feminine cloak for ill-humor,
| a headache, finally reduced him to silence.
The winters Gay slowly wore away. We
| tried to get through the weary hours by
all the usual travelling articles We read
assiduously the little green volumes of
fiction popular along the French line we
ate and drank at the regulation stations,
and we took the regulation little snatches
of uncomfortable sleep. So the hours
went by, and it was almost dark when we
came putting and whlzzing into the grand
Lyons station, about o'clock
Hitherto we had been free from fellow
passengers, much to my enjoyment but
here we were joined by lady. Somehow
she impressed me unfavorably. She was
much wrapped up in shaWls, and her trav-
cling hood was closely drawn over her
face. Her dark eyes cleaned ftfullysun-
der it with an unnatural brightness Her
mouth had a cold, sarcastic expression,
and s0Upc0n OF moustache disfgured
her upper lip. When she spoke, in an
swer to some slight civility of my hus-
bands, her voice was hard and repulsive.
My husband made several efforts to enter
into conversation, but she received them
so coldly that we left her to herself Still
she kept furitive and cat-like watch upon
US, which had an irritating effect upon
my nerves. After a time my husband fell
asleep, but do what would, I could not,
although worn out with fatigue, follow his
example.
| was in that excited state of mind when
tribes assume an unnatural Importance
and, although to some it may appear
almost laughable, yet am sure a nervous
reader will understand me when | say the
unbroken stiffness of the carriage, the
regular breathing of my husband, the un-
ceasing swing, swing of the lamp above
my head, and, above all, the pres
ence of our fellow passenger in the corner,
became to me perfectly intolerable. At
last, | resolutely shut my eyes, and after a
time fell into kind of semi unconscious
| ness.
While in this state it seemed to me that
our opposite neighbor performed the most
| extraordinary antics. [ thought she lay
at the bottom of the carriage and dragged
herself slowly and steadily toward us.
She got gradually nearer and nearer her
| face came quite close to mine her breath
was hot on my cheek; her hand was on
my mouth [ gave a loud, piercing shrek,
and opened my eyes. The elderly lady
was in her place by the window, looking
a little Hurried and agitated, but that was
to be accounted for by my startling her
My husband was much alarmed and could
| not account for the nervous tremor which
seemed to have seized upon me. l chung
close to him, and whispered the cause of
my fright.
AS I spoke IN English, I thought myself
secure, but felt her cold eyes upon me,
and my husbands assurances that it was
only dream failed to calm me. She was
most anxious in her inquiries about me.
She had been looking at me asleep, she
said, and saw that was struggling with
nightmare or bad dream; at the first sta
| ton [ ought to have some strengthening
tisane or coffee. After this she became
quite lively and chatty, but her converse
ton was to me more unpleasant than her
silence. She kept up an unceasing fire Of
| questions as to where we were coming
tronl-where we were going to. She was
herself an officers widow in Lyons, and
was gong to see her son at Marseilles. It
| provoked me exceedingly to see that my
husband considered her an intelligent and
| rather agreeable companion. He told her
all our plans, and they got on together
| very pleasantly.
Later on we came into large station.
Here, said our fellow traveller. after con-
sulting with great attention the railway
| guide, eve are to wait twenty minutes.
L would recommend that monsieur would
| alight and get madame a cup of good
| strong coffee, and the same for me, if mon
sieur would have the kindness"
felt the most curious dislike to be left
alone, but was ashamed to give utterance
to such a childish fear, and my husband
was too anxious to get me the coffee to
listen to my assurances that | did not want
it. | strained my head out of the window,
but soon lost sight of him in the darkness
[ thought felt the premonitory jerk of
Il, q train, and | looked around anxiously
The bell rang out loudly, and I started to
my feet in an agony "Sit down." said
my companion quietly F" that is nothing"
While she was speaking the train moved
slowly out of the station. | made frantic
rush to the window, but / was held back
and replaced in my seat by my friend,
who, while she kept on soothing and re-
assuring me in her croaky voice, held me
SO tight that [ could not possibly move.
When we were fairly off, she fell back in
her seat screaming and clanninp her