The guard came in to look at my ticket, and, pitying my lonely
condition, he opened a conversation. He told me that the son of an
immensely wealthy American nabob, with an escort well-nigh princely,
was travelling on the same train to Paris. He had with him an attendant
physician, a nursery governess, a little playfellow, a travelling
courier, and a huge negro servant to prepare his baths, besides several
inferior servants. These all occupied the parlour-car and the sleeping
compartments; but the little fellow had a parlour, a bedroom, and a
dressing-room all to himself.

I did not pay much attention to the talk of the gossiping guard, and so
he departed, and at last I could sleep. On the road I am like a miller
in his mill. So long as the wheel turns, I sleep on; but the moment it
is stopped, I start up and am instantly wide awake. We had reached a
smaller station where the train usually stops for a few minutes only,
when, to my surprise, there was a great deal of pushing and sliding of
the cars backward and forward, and we halted for an extraordinarily long
time. I was just getting up to learn what was going on, when the guard
entered, lantern in hand.

"I beg your pardon, sir," he said, "but there is something amiss. The
linch-pin of the parlour-car has become over-heated, and we had to
uncouple the car and leave it behind. Now we are obliged to find a
convenient place for the little American, until we reach some main
station, where another parlour-car can be attached to the train. I am
really sorry for you, sir, but this is the only suitable place we have,
and the little fellow and his governess must be your travelling
companions for a while."