THE DEAR GIRL.
BY THE AUTHOR OF "BELLA DONNA," "NEVER
FORGOTTEN," &C.
CHAPTER XI. THE DILIGENCE COMES IN.

WE have noticed Sody's, the post-house.
Sody, too, was a wine-merchant, which was
at the bottom of the hill going out of the town,
and where the Paris diligence came in every
second day, about four o'clock. The cloud of
dust on the hill made Sody, sprinkling sand
in a dingy den within, finish as quick as he
could; and gathered lounging men and boys
in the blouse uniform, and even brought faces to
many windows. The sound was like that of an
orchestra as the not unmusical jingling and the
sonorous tramping of six horses came out of the
cloud; and presently the great wain itself—
piled like a mountain with men and luggage,
swinging and reeling, with the driver swearing
and cracking his enormous waggoner's whip, and
every horse of the six leaping and tossing and
plunging and doing everything but draw like
its decent fellows in England—came thundering
in, and pulled up with nicety in front of Sody's.
It was an ark—a hotel laid on its side on
wheels—it seemed to hold so much humanity.
These were the Lafitte, Galliard, times. Great
men talk of our railways; but the "administration"
of this service was marvellous. Time was
kept; rain, snow, ice notwithstanding. The
great wheeled argosy was got on somehow. If
forty horses were necessary, they were found;
drivers and conductors were gifted men in their
way. The former giants. In the ice-bound
days when the country was like steel, they
would flog their wild horses down the steepest
hills to the music of women's shrieks from
within, and to their own frightful swearing.
Now a frantic brute would be down and
dragged along by the rest: scourged to his
feet again by that amazing whip. Those in
the coupé had the hoofs of the frantic brutes
on a level with their faces. The frightened
English ladies at the road-corners would see
pink-nosed, wild, cream-coloured Normandy
horses, that had been sent by a nobleman to be
put into the diligence to be broken in by that
severe training. Nearly every one went by
diligence to Paris. Posting had infinitely more
risks, and was not so certain, and less rapid.

Here it was now come in; here was the
mountain of baggage being got down—the
"johndarmes," all boots and white tape, lounging
by, and giving place to Mr. Blacker, who
was scrutinising the passengers with an official
air. They seemed a poor set enough, he
thought; he could see with a glance, from long
practice, their quality. As he was looking on
at the confused crowd of helpless strangers—
English ladies, with daughters and children,
bewildered with the commissaries shouting the
names of their establishments, even dragging
them away—a gentlemanly-looking man, all over
dust, came up to him, and said:

"You seem an Englishman, sir; and I think
I saw you at the port——"

Mr. Blacker drew back a little haughtily at
this style of address—"seem an Englishman,
indeed!" He had noticed that the person was
very dusty and shabby. No man had such a
just contempt for the "shy" English.

"Possibly, sir," he answered; "I have been
there; and what do you want with me?"

"I saw you with Mr. Dacres," the gentleman
went on; "perhaps you could help me, as
a stranger, and tell me of some quiet lodgings
here. I am really hardly well enough for the
bustle of a hotel."

A sick and decayed stranger—the next thing,
as Mr. Blacker had a sure and certain instinct,
would be the usual application in harmony with
these symptoms. "My good friend, how can I
tell you? I really do not know what will suit
people. You must go to an agent, or walk
about and look at the houses. It's not in my
way at all, I assure you. God bless me, who
have we here?"

A post-chaise was clattering down the little
hill, with the great speckled Wooverman horses,
round as dray-horses, and the picturesque post-
boy jogging up and down. There was something
to interest Mr. Blacker, and he darted
away to play the good Samaritan. A post-
chaise and luggage were like an order set in
jewels. "There was no mistake" about that;
there was nothing on credit here, you see—you
paid as you went. It was an exceedingly costly
shape of introduction. In an instant the diligence
lost interest, and the blouses gathered
about the newly arrived chaise. Mr. Blacker,
forgetting the shabby fellow who had come in
the diligence, was peering in, his hand shading
his eyes, with a half smiling recognition, which