Yet what else could I do?
Before I had settled this question, which occupied me so fully that I forgot other and more serious difficulties, the omnibus drove into a station-yard, and every passenger, inside and out, prepared to alight.

I lingered till the last, and sat still till I had unfastened my gold-piece.

The wind drove across the open space in a strong gust as I stepped down upon the pavement.

A man had just descended from the roof, and was paying the conductor: a tall, burly man, wearing a thick water-proof coat, and a seaman's hat of oil-skin, with a long flap lying over the back of his neck.

His face was brown and weather-beaten, but he had kindly-looking eyes, which glanced at me as I stood waiting to pay my fare.
"Going down to Southampton ?" said the conductor to him.
"Ay, and beyond Southampton," he answered.
"You'll have a rough night of it," said the conductor.--"Sixpence, if you please, miss." I offered him my Australian sovereign, which he turned over curiously, asking me if I had no smaller change.