It was a car, if I remember aright, occupied almost entirely by men-passengers, and, so far as I could see, there were no evidences that men knew women from men, or _vice versa_, yet, at last, there seemed to dawn on four men sitting in a row that there was a wonderful creature reading a book on the other side of the aisle--a lovely young woman, with all the fabled beauty of the sea-shell, and the rainbow, that enchantment in her calm pearl-like face, and in the woven stillness of her hair, that has in all times and countries made men throw up sails and dare the unknown sea, and the unknown Fates. The beauty, too, that nature had given her was clothed in the subdued enchantments of the rarest art. All unconscious of the admiration surrounding her, she sat in that subway car, like a lonely butterfly, strangely there in her incongruous surroundings, for a mysterious moment,--to vanish as swiftly as she had come--and, as she stepped from the car, leaving it dark and dazzled--
I, who had fortunately, and fearfully, sat by her side was aware that the book she had been reading was lying forgotten on the seat. It was mine by right of accident,--treasure-trove. So I picked it up, braving the glares of the four sad men facing me.
Naturally, I had wondered what book it was; but its being bound in tooled and jewelled morocco, evidently by one of the great bookbinders of Paris, made it unprofitable to hazard a guess.
I leave to the imagination of lovers of books what book one would naturally expect to find in hands so fair. Perhaps _Ronsard_--or some other poet from the Rose-Garden of old France. No! it was a charmingly printed copy of The New Testament.
The paradox of the discovery hushed me for a few moments, and then I began to turn over the pages, several of which I noticed were dog eared after the manner of beautiful women in all ages. A pencil here and there had marked certain passages. _Come unto me_, ran one of the underlined passages, _all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest_,--and I thought how strange it was that she whose face was so calm and still should have needed to mark that. And another marked passage I noted--_He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not_. Then I put down the book with a feeling of awe--such as the Bible had never brought to me before, though I had been accustomed to it from my boyhood, and I said to myself: "How very strange!" And I meant how strange it was to find this wonderful old book in the hands of this wonderful young beauty.