a shower of rain. The name of this gentleman
was Diamond-Captain Thomas Diamond, of the
Royal Veteran Batalion.

"I am waiting," he said to the friendly porter,
with whom he was now on the most confidential
terms, "for two ladies, nieces of mine, and I have
never seen them since they were that high. And
really, now, I don't know how I shall make them
out when they do come."

It was a puzzling thing, but it often occurred;
someway, it always came right, the porter said.
"There was a look about them by which you
knew. You saw two young women a-getting
out of the train, and you knew at once they were
your young women."

The captain owned there was good sense in
this observation, founded, as it was, on an extensive
experience of human nature- at least, of the
human nature that arrives in some fifty or sixty
trains daily. "I dare say you are right," he said.
"'Pon my word, there is a great deal of sense in
what you say."

"You just take your stand, it may be there,
sir," said the porter, illustrating his remark, and
encouraged by this praise, "and look out for the
first two young women you see standing in the
open door, or lookin' up and down the line for
some one. And they'll be your two young women
- I'll lay you a crown, sir."

This allusion to the coin might have been
accidental, but it gave a sort of hint to Captain
Diamond, who thanked him very warmly for his
kindness, and took something out of his purse,
which he gave with great mystery, not wishing
publicly to violate the company's regulations.

The train was now seen along the platform,
and in a moment there was a rush of officials from
private doors, and a restlessness in drivers and
horses and cabs, a backing, and a plunging, and
a gesticulating, while every one was looking out
at the edge, as if a ship were coming alongside
the pier. And in a moment the train came in,
rumbling and rolling, and making the roof reverberate;
and the engine was pulled up suddenly,
shedding steam and dew, and dripping like an
exhausted racer. In a second, doors flew open,
and the platform seemed to have generated a
new race of men and women, who came into a
cold world with cloaks and wrappers and caps
on, and baskets in their hands.

The porter had, indeed, shown a profound
instinct, for, exactly as he had foretold, the
captain saw two ladies in the doorway of a carriage,
looking up and down anxiously. Often afterwards
he would begin praising railway porters
heartily for their "willingness," saying they were
the most intelligent class of men in the world.

The captain limped up to the door, and touching
his hat- he was a little near-sighted, and
always read with spectacles- which was a little
like a bishop's, said, with great deference, "I
beg your pardon, but perhaps you are looking
for—-"

"Ah! it is uncle," cried the elder of the ladies.
" Uncle Diamond, we are your nieces."

"I thought so," he said, taking both their
hands, and helping them out, "and I am so
glad."

The younger, with a very fairy-like face, and
an eager, restless manner, who was small, bright,
and black-eyed, now broke in without preface:
"And I am so glad! But, oh, uncle Diamond,
such a dreadful thing has happened to us; we
don't know what to do."

"God bless me," said the captain, starting
back, "what is it?"

"We have lost everything. I could sit down
and cry; and after all our miseries and misfortunes
to have this! And we don't know what
to do, uncle."

"Never mind, my dear," said he, without
knowing what they meant, " we'll get it again.
It will all come right again in the morning."

"It is a great misfortune for poor little Alice.
We were getting some tea in the refreshment
room," said the elder, quickly, "and she laid
down our bag, and forgot it."

"The train went off so suddenly," the other
said, "and they hurried us on. But what are
we to do? For it had all our money in the world,
and darling mamma's picture and her letters,
oh, uncle Diamond, uncle Diamond!" And the
little girl wrung her hands bitterly.

Uncle Diamond soothed her tenderly. It
would all come right, he said, depend on it.
What was the station- what was the place?
There was really a most intelligent fellow here
among the porters, and suppose they consulted
him.

"There is a chance," said the elder, "you
know there is. The gentleman—-"

"Yes, uncle," said the younger, " a gentleman
that was with us bravely jumped out when the
train was moving, and, I fear, has hurt himself
dreadfully."

"He'll look after it, depend on it," said the
captain, with affected cheerfulness and
confidence. "To be sure he will! He's sure not to be
hurt. Here's our sagacious friend, he'll tell us
what to do."

The sagacious friend at first seemed to doubt
the truth of the story, for he said it was
"teetotally agin the laws of the company that
any one should leap out when the train was in
motion." When they persisted in their statement,
he seemed to think it a bad case morally,
and it weakened his view as to the possibility of
recovering the lost bag. P'raps he had got
the bag, and more likely, p'raps he hadn't.
Whether he had or hadn't, the authorities
wouldn't let him go most likely. When Captain
Diamond proposed telegraphing to the
station, he said it was no use, as he had come on-
most likely. At last, however, he advised coming
back in about an hour and a half, when the
next train was due, and in all probability he
would come by that- supposing "he was let."

They determined to wait there. The elder,
dismissing the bag from her thoughts, talked
calmly with her uncle about their affairs, and
her journey, and other things. But the younger,
excited, restless, eager, kept running to the