"I'll be back," she stated, disregarding the elder woman and speaking to the younger. "And I'm going to find out more about you, too, before I'm done."
Her step, departing, was brisk and resolute.
In the aisle near the forward door she encountered the flagman.
"There is a man in the smoker I must see at once," she said. "Will you please go in there and find him and tell him I wish—no, never mind. I see him coming now."
She went a step or two on to meet the person she sought, halting him in the untenanted space at the end of the coach.
"I want to speak with you, please," she began.
"Well, you'll have to hurry," he told her, "because I'm getting off with my party in less'n five minutes from now. What was it you wanted to say to me?"
"That young girl yonder—I became interested in her. I thought perhaps she had been injured. Then more or less by chance I found out the true facts. I spoke to her; she told me a little about her plight."
"Well, if you've been talking to her what's the big idea in talking to me?"
His tone was churlish.