At first they had a carriage to themselves. They sat opposite each other
with averted faces, looking out of the windows and watching the houses,
the downs dead asleep in the sun, the embankments of the railway with
exhausted hot flowers go slowly past out of their reach. They felt as if
they were being dragged away like criminals. Unable to speak or think,
they stared out of the windows, Helena struggling in vain to keep back
her tears, Siegmund labouring to breathe normally.
At Yarmouth the door was snatched open, and there was a confusion of
shouting and running; a swarm of humanity, clamouring, attached itself
at the carriage doorway, which was immediately blocked by a stout man
who heaved a leather bag in front of him as he cried in German that here
was room for all. Faces innumerable--hot, blue-eyed faces--strained to
look over his shoulders at the shocked girl and the amazed Siegmund.
There entered eight Germans into the second-class compartment, five men
and three ladies. When at last the luggage was stowed away they sank
into the seats. The last man on either side to be seated lowered himself
carefully, like a wedge, between his two neighbours. Siegmund watched
the stout man, the one who had led the charge, settling himself between
his large lady and the small Helena. The latter crushed herself against
the side of the carriage. The German's hips came down tight against her.
She strove to lessen herself against the window, to escape the pressure
of his flesh, whose heat was transmitted to her. The man squeezed in the
opposite direction.
'I am afraid I press you,' he said, smiling in his gentle, chivalric
German fashion. Helena glanced swiftly at him. She liked his grey eyes,
she liked the agreeable intonation, and the pleasant sound of his words.
'Oh no,' she answered. 'You do not crush me.' Almost before she had finished the words she turned away to the window.
The man seemed to hesitate a moment, as if recovering himself from a
slight rebuff, before he could address his lady with the good-humoured
remark in German: 'Well, and have we not managed it very nicely, eh?' The whole party began to talk in German with great animation. They told
each other of the quaint ways of this or the other; they joked loudly
over 'Billy'--this being a nickname discovered for the German
Emperor--and what he would be saying of the Czar's trip; they questioned
each other, and answered each other concerning the places they were
going to see, with great interest, displaying admirable knowledge. They
were pleased with everything; they extolled things English.