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“Not time now,” I heard him say, as I dashed into the booking-office.

The clerk was shutting the window.

“Third single–anywhere–Fleetwood!” I shouted, flinging down a couple of sovereigns.

I was vaguely aware of seizing the ticket, of hearing some one call after me something about “change,” of a whistle, the waving of a flag, and a shout, “Stand away from the train.” Next moment I was sprawling on all fours on the knees of a carriage full of passengers; and before I had time to look up the 1:30 train was outside Euston station.

It took me some time to recover from the perturbation of the start, and still longer to overcome the bad impression which my entry had made on my fellow-passengers.

Indeed I was made distinctly uncomfortable by the attitude which two, at any rate, of these persons took up. One was a young man of the type which I usually connect with detectives. The other was a rollicking commercial traveller.

“You managed to do it, then?” said the latter to me when finally I had shaken myself together and found a seat.

“Yes, just,” said I.

The other man looked hard at me from behind a newspaper.

“Best to cut your sort of job fine,” continued the commercial, knowingly. “Awkward to meet a friend just when you’re starting, wouldn’t it?” with a wink that he evidently meant to be funny.

I coloured up violently, and was aware that the other man had his eye on me. I was being taken for a runaway!

“Worth my while to keep chummy with you,” said the heartless man of the road. “Start a little flush, don’t you?”

I ignored this pointed inquiry.

“Not bank-notes, I hope–because they’ve an unkind way of stopping them. Not but what you might get rid of one or two if you make haste. But they’re ugly things to track a chap out by, you know. Why, I knew a young fellow, much your age and build, borrowed a whole sheaf of ’em and went up north, and made up his mind he’d have a high old time. He did slip through a fiver; but–would you believe it?–the next he tried on, they were down on him like shooting stars, and he’s another two years to do on the mill before he can come another trip by the 1:30. They all fancy this train.”

This style of talk, much as it amused my fellow-passengers and interested the man in the corner, made me feel in a most painful position. My looks and blushes, I am aware, were most compromising; and my condition generally, without luggage, without rug, without even a newspaper, enveloped me in such an atmosphere of mystery and suspicion that I half began to wonder whether I was not an absconding forger myself.

Fortunately the train stopped at Willesden and I took advantage of the halt to change my carriage, explaining clumsily that I should prefer a carriage where I could sit with my face to the engine, whereat every one smiled except myself and the man in the corner.

I tried hard to find an empty carriage; but the train was full and there was no such luxury to be had. Besides, guards, porters, and station- masters were all shouting to me to get inside somewhere, and a score of heads attracted by the commotion appeared at the windows and added to my discomfort. Finally I took refuge in a carriage which seemed less crowded than the rest–having but two occupants.

Alas! to my horror and dismay I discovered when the train had started that I had intruded myself on a palpably honeymoon couple, who glared at me in such an unfriendly manner that for the next hour and a half, without respite, I was constrained to stand with my head out of the window. Even in the tunnels I had no encouragement to turn my head round.