Europe -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; New Zealand -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Short stories, New Zealand
But when the boat stopped and she went up on deck, her dress-basket in
one hand, her rug and umbrella in the other, a cold, strange wind flew
under her hat. She looked up at the masts and spars of the ship black
against a green glittering sky and down to the dark landing stage where
strange muffled figures lounged, waiting; she moved forward with the
sleepy flock, all knowing where to go to and what to do except her, and
she felt afraid. Just a little—just enough to wish—oh, to wish that it
was daytime and that one of those women who had smiled at her in the
glass, when they both did their hair in the Ladies’ Cabin, was
somewhere near now. “Tickets, please. Show your tickets. Have your
tickets ready.” She went down the gangway balancing herself carefully
on her heels. Then a man in a black leather cap came forward and
touched her on the arm. “Where for, Miss?” He spoke English—he must be
a guard or a stationmaster with a cap like that. She had scarcely
answered when he pounced on her dress-basket. “This way,” he shouted,
in a rude, determined voice, and elbowing his way he strode past the
people. “But I don’t want a porter.” What a horrible man! “I don’t want
a porter. I want to carry it myself.” She had to run to keep up with
him, and her anger, far stronger than she, ran before her and snatched
the bag out of the wretch’s hand. He paid no attention at all, but
swung on down the long dark platform, and across a railway line. “He is
a robber.” She was sure he was a robber as she stepped between the
silvery rails and felt the cinders crunch under her shoes. On the other
side—oh, thank goodness!—there was a train with Munich written on it.
The man stopped by the huge lighted carriages. “Second class?” asked
the insolent voice. “Yes, a Ladies’ compartment.” She was quite out of
breath. She opened her little purse to find something small enough to
give this horrible man while he tossed her dress-basket into the rack
of an empty carriage that had a ticket, _Dames Seules_, gummed on
window. She got into the train and handed twenty centimes. “What’s
this?” shouted the man, glaring at the money and then at her, holding
it up to his nose, sniffing at it as though he had never in his life
seen, much less held, such a sum. “It’s a franc. You know that, don’t
you? It’s a franc. That’s my fare!” A franc! Did he imagine that she
was going to give him a franc for playing a trick like that just
because she was a girl and travelling alone at night? Never, never! She
squeezed her purse in her hand and simply did not see him—she looked at
a view of St. Malo on the wall opposite and simply did not hear him.
“Ah, no. Ah, no. Four sous. You make a mistake. Here, take it. It’s a
franc I want.” He leapt on to the step of the train and threw the money
on to her lap. Trembling with terror she screwed herself tight, tight,
and put out an icy hand and took the money—stowed it away in her hand.
“That’s all you’re going to get,” she said. For a minute or two she
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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