back to it--I am glad to see the three-and-six signs with the
little slanting dash between the shillings and pennies. Yes,
even the steam-rollers and the man with the red flag in front
are welcome."

"I suppose," said Mrs. Downs, "it's because one has been so
long on the ocean that the ride to London seems so
interesting. It always pays me for the entire trip. Yes,"
she said, with a sigh, "in spite of the patent-medicine signs
they have taken to putting up all along the road. It seems a
pity they should adopt our bad habits instead of our good
ones."

"They are a bit slow at adopting anything," commented Carlton.
"Did you know, Mrs. Downs, that electric lights are still as
scarce in London as they are in Timbuctoo? Why, I saw an
electric-light plant put up in a Western town in three days
once; there were over a hundred burners in one saloon, and the
engineer who put them up told me in confidence that--"

What the chief engineer told him in confidence was never
disclosed, for at that moment Miss Morris interrupted him with
a sudden sharp exclamation.

"Oh, Mr. Carlton," she exclaimed, breathlessly, "listen to
this!" She had been reading one of the dozen papers which
Carlton had purchased at the station, and was now shaking one
of them at him, with her eyes fixed on the open page.

"My dear Edith," remonstrated her aunt, "Mr. Carlton was