He watched his chance, and when she happened to drop her handkerchief, he promptly picked it up.
"Charming day," said he, with a smile.
"It is indeed beautiful," said the young lady, turning her dark, brilliant eyes full upon the rascal.
"Do you enjoy riding in the cars?" he went on, with another smile.
"I? Well—I—I—What will you say to me when I tell you that now, for the first time, I find myself in the cars?"
"For the first time?" repeated Nick Smithers, in astonishment.
"It is even so," said the young lady. "I do not wonder that you are surprised. I—I presume there are few cases like mine." And she heaved a long sigh.
"Here is certainly a mystery!" thought the confidence man. "Can she have lived all her life in the backwoods, or what? I must investigate this."
"You are surprised?" she said, softly.
"I must confess that I am, madam. Perhaps you have a dislike to cars?"