He raised his hand, just as we were about
passing him, as if signalling an omnibus, and our driver suddenly reined
in his team.
A full, hearty voice, not a bit nasal, but fresh from the broad chest,
showed us a traveller by the road-side, waiting to be taken up.
He sprang with two bounds to the top of the coach, and made room for
himself just above us among the countless boxes.
"Don't let me disturb you, Madam All right. Just room for my bag. Go on,
driver."
"Fine day," said we.
"A warm morning. I have been walking for the last fifteen miles,--but
the sun is too hot for me."
He took off his travelling-hat of weather-beaten Panama, and dried his
broad brow with his handkerchief. Then he looked at us with clear blue
eyes, and tossed back his curling brown hair. He had a gray
travelling-dress, such as everybody wears now, but which was then a
novelty; and something in his curt, clear accents, and his crimson lips,
and the fresh life in his limbs and action, betrayed that he was not an
American.
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