The lady seemed to regard herself as a martyr. I heard her excitedly narrating her wrongs to one of her neighbors, finishing off with:
'I was never treated so before; never! never!'
'H'm!' said the person addressed, as if not quite coinciding with her views of the case.
An elderly man, who sat beside me, and whose appearance and manners plainly indicated his title to
had started to his feet with the rest, but having been out when the affair commenced, was unable to comprehend what the row was about. As he turned to me with a bewildered and inquiring look, I explained to him the cause of the trouble, at the same time expressing my opinion that the man had been unjustly thrust out, and that the lady was entirely to blame.
'Certainly she was,' said he, with emphasis, 'but the conductor was still more so. He ought to have given the men their seat, and found another for the lady.' Then glancing contemptuously at her, the old gentleman said:
'Oh, she's no lady--she's some common person--no _lady_ would behave in that manner.'
As I was more than half of the old gentleman's opinion, I did not gainsay him. After a pause, he continued, with a self-complacency that amused me:
'Ah, I am a pretty good judge of women; and I don't believe that any _lady_ would travel with _a thing like that_ on her head. No, no; she's some common person, depend upon it.'
It was evident to me that the old gentleman felt very strongly on the subject of 'jockeys;' for, not content with this sweeping thrust, he shortly afterward renewed the subject. It happened that in this particular car there was an appendage affixed to the back of each seat, for the purpose of adding to the comfort of passengers, but which signally failed of that end, as far as the bonnet-wearing part of the community was concerned. As I was much incommoded by it, I requested the old gentleman to turn it down for me. As he did so, he glanced again at our neighbor in the black silk dress, who had taken off her 'jockey,' and was comfortably reposing her raven locks on the aforesaid appendage, and said, jocularly:
'Now, if you would wear such a thing as _that_, you could take it off, and be quite comfortable.'
And he laughed, quietly but heartily, at what he evidently considered the preposterousness of such an idea.