Yet wild and gay
He hums his way,
A nomad on his own.
THE SUFFERER.
Having engaged a sleeping-berth I naturally hurried, coin in hand, to the conductor, as all wise travellers do (usually to their discomfiture), to see if I could be accommodated with a compartment to myself and be guaranteed against invasion.
The carriage was full.
I then sought my compartment, to learn the worst as to my position, whether above or below the necessarily offensive person who was to be my companion.
He was already there, and we exchanged the hard implacable glare that is reserved among the English for the other fellow in a wagon-lit compartment.