smoothly, everything was for the best in the best of all possible worlds, and only love and love’s requital existed� .

Then, in the fraction of a second, as it seemed, there was a grating, a horrible grind of iron, a bump, a check, and my head was buried in the cushions of the opposite side of the carriage, and I felt stunned — not much, but a little.

“What — what?” I heard myself exclaim. “They must have plumped the brakes on pretty sudden.”

Then, quite after an interval, it occurred to me that this was a railway accident — one of those things that one reads of in the papers with so much calmness. I wondered if I was hurt, and why I could hear no sound; the silence was absolute — terrifying.