A porter put his head into the carriage in which the actor's party had already begun to lean back, and realise the fact that they had started, and inquired whether the gentleman who owned the portmanteau left at the station an hour ago, and which he had just put into the van, according to orders, was there. The occupants of the carriage glanced at each other, shook their heads in a general negative, and Bryan Duval answered for them, 'No, the gentleman was not there.'
'Beg pardon, gentlemen,' said the porter, 'but I can't find the owner of the portmanteau.'
'And you want your tip, I suppose?' said Bryan Duval, in an undertone, to the man, who was standing on the step of the carriage, with his hands on the door.
'No, sir, I don't,' said the man; 'the gentleman paid me to look after the portmanteau. I only wanted to make sure that he was here, so as it shouldn't go amongst missing luggage, but I can't find him--he isn't in the train.' He fell back, made a sign to the guard, and the train moved on this time, to pursue its way unbrokenly.
'What a horrid nuisance!' said Miss Montressor to Mr. Foster. 'I can't imagine anything more worrying than losing one's luggage.'
'And yet,' said Mr. Foster, 'it is one of those things no one gets pitied for. For my part, I always stick to mine in this country, where matters of that kind are certainly not regulated with the intelligence and attention to public convenience they are amongst us. However, I daresay this gentleman and his portmanteau will not be long parted. That porter was an honest fellow. Shall I pull the window up?'
'No, thanks,' said Miss Montressor. 'I am perfectly comfortable. You have very good notions of travelling, Mr. Foster, and have chosen my seat with admirable discretion. Where is the library?--O, overhead, I see. Not that I care much for reading in a train; it tries one's eyes. Do you always read in the train?'
'That depends on my company,' said Mr. Foster. 'I don't feel inclined to read to-day.'
'Then suppose we make a law that nobody is to read?' said Miss Montressor, looking round upon her companions with the proud consciousness of being a leading lady in every sense of the word.
'Never make a law unless you are sure of its being obeyed,' said Bryan Duval drily, as he settled his travelling cap, and ensconced his head in a convenient angle of the partition between his seat and that of his fair neighbour, opposite to whom Mr. Foster was placed, and immediately immersed himself in the pages of the Times.