The Orient Express, in which Carlton and the mistress of his
heart and fancy were speeding towards the horizon's utmost
purple rim, was made up of six cars, one dining-car with a
smoking-apartment attached, and five sleeping-cars, including
the one reserved for the Duke of Hohenwald and his suite.
These cars were lightly built, and rocked in consequence, and
the dust raised by the rapid movement of the train swept
through cracks and open windows, and sprinkled the passengers
with a fine and irritating coating of soot and earth. There
was one servant to the entire twenty-two passengers. He spoke
eight languages, and never slept; but as his services were in
demand by several people in as many different cars at the same
moment he satisfied no one, and the complaint-box in the
smoking-car was stuffed full to the slot in consequence before
they had crossed the borders of France.

Carlton and Miss Morris went out upon one of the platforms and
sat down upon a tool-box. "It's isn't as comfortable here as
in an observation-car at home," said Carlton, "but it's just
as noisy."

He pointed out to her from time to time the peasants gathering
twigs, and the blue-bloused gendarmes guarding the woods and
the fences skirting them. "Nothing is allowed to go to waste
in this country," he said. "It looks as though they went over
it once a month with a lawn-mower and a pruning-knife.
I believe they number the trees as we number the houses."


"And did you notice the great fortifications covered with grass?"