Since it is impossible to teach
these people manners or meekness, the guards and porters treat them, as
far as possible, with patient forbearance. They must, of course, be
got into the train, but the doors of their compartments are not locked.
It has been found by experience that English travellers object to being
imprisoned without trial, and quote regulations of the Board of Trade
forbidding the locking of both doors of a railway carriage. There is
nothing to be gained by a public wrangle with an angry Englishman. He
cannot be got to understand that laws, those of the Board of Trade or
any other, are not binding on Irish officials. There is only one way
of treating him without loss of dignity, and that is to give in to him
at once, with a shrug of the shoulders.
Thus, Miss King, entering upon the final stage of her journey to
Ballymoy, reaped the benefit of belonging to a conquering and imperial
race. She was, indeed, put into her compartment, a first-class one,
ten minutes before the train started; but her door, alone of all the
doors, was left unlocked. The last solemn minutes before the departure
of the train passed slowly.
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