Faithful to his insular prejudices, Norgate, on finding that the other seat in his coupe was engaged, started out to find the train attendant with a view to changing his place.

His errand, however, was in vain.

The train, it seemed, was crowded.

He returned to his compartment to find already installed there one of the most complete and absolute types of Germanism he had ever seen.

A man in a light grey suit, the waistcoat of which had apparently abandoned its efforts to compass his girth, with a broad, pink, good-humoured face, beardless and bland, flaxen hair streaked here and there with grey, was seated in the vacant place.