The thing started suddenly, and that jerked me backwards.

I fell against a stout gentleman, just behind me.
He could not have been standing very firmly himself, and he, in his turn, fell back against a boy who was carrying a trumpet in a green baize case.
They never smiled, neither the man nor the boy with the trumpet; they just stood there and looked sulky.

I was going to say I was sorry, but before I could get the words out the tram eased up, for some reason or other, and that, of course, shot me forward again, and I butted into a white-haired old chap, who looked to me like a professor.

Well, _he_ never smiled, never moved a muscle." "Maybe, he was thinking of something else," I suggested.
"That could not have been the case with them all," replied Harris, "and in the course of that journey, I must have fallen against every one of them at least three times.

You see," explained Harris, "they knew when the corners were coming, and in which direction to brace themselves.