Mr. Carville was fond of using this ejaculation of his in a double sense, if I may say so. As he spoke his eyes were fixed with some interest upon four of our neighbours, who had seated themselves near us and had laid a grey mill-board card-table across their knees. Whether it was the card-table, or the extraordinary speed with which the _Raritan_ was loaded, that excited his amusement, I am unable to decide. I was too familiar with the American habit of gambling in trains to take much notice of it. It is possible that Mr. Carville was less sophisticated. "That," I said, "does not give you much time on shore." "No," he said, "it doesn't. Speaking in a general way, we're glad to get to sea. In port, at this end at any rate, it's one continual rush. Shore people have very little consideration for sea-going men. They come and bang at your door any time, day or night. You may be changing your shift--don't matter, in they come. Some business or other. At sea," he concluded, "we do have a little peace." "Where are you bound for?" I asked, opening my paper. "Oh, Savona or some Riviera port, I expect. They don't give us our orders till we're off Sandy Hook. You're going to New York, I suppose, sir, on business?" "Not exactly. I'm going to Staten Island," I replied, "and I believe this is the quickest way." He regarded me with astonishment. "Is that so? I suppose you'll be taking the ferry to St. George, then?" I said that such was my intention, and asked why. "Why, you see, I'm going that way myself, to Communipaw. The _Raritan_ is lying down there." "Dear me! It never struck me----" I began. He laughed quietly. "No," he said, "I don't suppose, if you asked a thousand New Yorkers where such and such a ship was loaded, that more than one could tell you. They know the _Lusitania_ lies somewhere about Eighteenth Street and the _Oceanic_'s next to her, and that's about all. It's the same everywhere. Ask a man in the Strand how to get to Tidal Basin; he won't know what Tidal Basin is, let alone _where_ it is. As for an oil-boat--Humph!" "I shall have your company, then?" I said. He shrugged his shoulders. "If you don't object, sir," he said. "I should like it above all things," I returned. "I was thinking last night that there were many things I should like to ask you, but I was afraid that possibly you might not visit us again for a long time." "Not at all," he said. "I was very glad to step in. You've got an atmosphere ... if I can call it that. I mean there's something I don't get on a ship, or for that matter, at home ... you understand? Now and again I feel I'd like to talk to people who _do_ understand." "That reminds me," I said, "that I have been wondering how New York impresses you. I think it is rather wonderful myself." Mr. Carville smoked silently for a few moments while the card-players pursued their games and the train thundered through the flat swamps of Riverside. "Have you ever seen it," he asked, "from the Narrows?"