He Had For
Years And Years Inspected Trains At The Head Of A Heavyish Grade In The
Mountains - Though Not Half So Steep As The Hex[4] - Where All Brakes Are
Jammed Home, And The Cars Slither Warily For Ten Miles.
Tire-troubles
there would be inconvenient, so he, as the best man, is given the
heaviest job - monotony and responsibility combined.
He did me the honour
of wanting to speak to me, but first he inspected his train - on all
fours with a hammer. By the time he was satisfied of the integrity of
the underpinnings it was time for us to go; and all that I got was a
friendly wave of the hand - a master craftsman's sign, you might call it.
[Footnote 4: Hex River, South Africa.]
Canada seems full of this class of materialist.
Which reminds me that the other day I saw the Lady herself in the shape
of a tall woman of twenty-five or six, waiting for her tram on a street
corner. She wore her almost flaxen-gold hair waved, and parted low on
the forehead, beneath a black astrachan toque, with a red enamel
maple-leaf hatpin in one side of it. This was the one touch of colour
except the flicker of a buckle on the shoe. The dark, tailor-made dress
had no trinkets or attachments, but fitted perfectly. She stood for
perhaps a minute without any movement, both hands - right bare, left
gloved - hanging naturally at her sides, the very fingers still, the
weight of the superb body carried evenly on both feet, and the profile,
which was that of Gudrun or Aslauga, thrown out against a dark stone
column.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 130 of 264
Words from 34973 to 35254
of 71314
