He talked very
tenderly about the loss of his wife, and once went back to his own seat to
get a picture of his motherless little girl, and a box of bonbons.
The conductor passed just then, and asked the young lady if she ever saw
that gentleman before. She told him No; but, though the question was put
very kindly and quietly, it made her quite indignant.
As they approached the end of the journey, the man penciled a brief note to
her mother on a card, Signed what purported to be his name, and gave it to
her. Then he asked if he might get her a carriage provided her uncle, whom
she expected, did not meet her, and she assented at once.
When the train arrived in New York, and the conductor came and took her
traveling-bag, she was vexed, and protested that the gentleman had promised
to look after her. The official told her kindly, but firmly, that her
father had put her in his care, and he should not leave her until he had
seen her under her uncle's protection or put her in a carriage himself. She
turned for appeal to her new acquaintance, but he had vanished.
When she reached home after her visit, and told her experience, and
presented the card, her mother said she had never known nor heard of such a
man.
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