E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/americana) Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See http://www.archive.org/details/romanceintransit00lyndrich A ROMANCE IN TRANSIT by FRANCIS LYNDE Third Edition Charles Scribner's Sons New York 1899 Copyright, 1897, by Charles Scribner's Sons Trow Directory Printing and Bookbinding Company New York To the small person who unconsciously provided the _motif_ herein wrought upon, this transitory tale is affectionately attributed by THE AUTHOR CONTENTS I. P. P. C. ARIADNE II. THE "PERSONALLY CONDUCTED" III. THE PRIVATE CAR IV. THE DINNER STATION V. AT THE MEETING-POINT VI. REGARDLESS ORDERS VII. A DINNER ON WHEELS VIII. THE CAB OF THE TEN-WHEELER IX. FIFTY MILES AN HOUR X. A CONFIDENCE EN ROUTE XI. AN ARRIVAL IN TRANSIT XII. THE ANCIENTS AND INVALIDS XIII. BETWEEN STATIONS XIV. WITH DENVER IN SIGHT XV. YARD-LIMITS XVI. THE MADDING CROWD XVII. ON THE NARROW-GAUGE XVIII. FLAGGED DOWN XIX. THE FOOLISH WIRES XX. CHIEFLY SCENIC XXI. ON THE HEIGHTS XXII. ON THE SPUR-TRACK XXIII. THE LAND OF HEART'S DELIGHT XXIV. THE END OF A STOP-OVER XXV. WESTWARD HO! XXVI. A BLIND SIDING XXVII. THE DRUMMING WHEELS A ROMANCE IN TRANSIT I P. P. C. ARIADNE Train Number Three, the "Flying Kestrel," vestibuled, had crossed the yellow Rubicon of the West and was mounting toward the Occident up the gentle acclivities of the Great Plain. The morning was perfect, as early autumn mornings are wont to be in the trans-Missouri region; the train was on time; and the through passengers in the Pullman sleeping-car "Ariadne" had settled themselves, each according to his gifts, to enjoy or endure the day-long run. There was a sun-browned ranchman in lower eleven, homeward bound from the Chicago stockyards; a pair of school-teachers, finishing their vacation journey, in ten; a Mormon elder, smug in ready-made black and narrow-brimmed hat, _vis-à-vis_ in lower five with two hundred pounds of good-natured, comfort-loving Catholic priesthood in lower six. Two removes from the elder, a Denver banker lounged corner-wise in his section, oblivious to everything save the figures in the financial column of the morning paper; and diagonally across from the banker were the inevitable newly married ones, advertising themselves as such with all the unconscious _naïveté_ of their kind.