Already the starting bell had been rung and the shrill steam-whistle had sent up its preparatory shriek. 'Dritte klasse, zweite klasse!' the bearded German guard was shouting, while waving his little flag of the North Germanic colours. 'Hierher--nach hinten--nach vorn--Bitte, steigen sie ein, madame!' ('Pray get in,' etc.) Mechanically, Chute, in mere politeness, opened the carriage door, and she was half handed, half pushed in by the hasty guard, for already the train was in motion, and she found herself, it would seem, separated from her friends, and swept away by the express in companionship with a total stranger. 'How awkward,' she said in German; 'I have been put--almost thrust, I may say--into the wrong carriage.' 'You can change at Buchen, the only place where the express stops,' replied Chute. 'Ah! you are English,' said she, her countenance languidly lighted up. 'So glad; for though I speak German pretty well, I don't understand the patois of the people hereabouts, on the borders of Holstein.' Chute merely made an inclination of his head, and was about to throw his cigar out of the window, when she begged he would not do so; smoking never incommoded her--indeed, she rather liked it. He thanked her, and they slid into the usual little commonplaces about the weather, the scenery, and so forth. Though handsome, she was _passée_, and Trevor Chute could detect that she had in her manner much of the polished _insouciance_, the cultivated, yet apparently careless fascination of a woman of the world; and it soon became evident that she knew it, and the world of London too, in many phases. Apart from the rank that was indicated by a coronet and monogram that were among the silver ornaments on her blue velvet Marguerite pouch, he felt certain that she was an Englishwoman of undoubted position, and was quite _aplomb_--even a little 'fast'--in her manner; but that amused Chute. He could perceive that she was married, as a wedding hoop was among the gemmed rings that sparkled on her left hand--a very lovely one in shape and whiteness; moreover, she spoke of her husband, and said they were to take the branch line at Buchen for the Elbe, adding: 'Do you go so far?' 'Farther; to Lubeck--a place few people go to, and few come from.' 'Ah! And you travel----' 'To kill time.' 'Most people do so. _We_ came here to be out of the way of people one knows and is sure to meet everywhere in more beaten tracks; also to get rid of the tedium of visiting ambassadors, and undergoing their receptions--one of the greatest bores when abroad.' She evidently knew London well. In the course of conversation they discovered that several of their acquaintances were mutual, and Chute began to wonder who she was, and became interested in her, in spite of his general indifference.