A CANARY FOR ONE. In the morning the train was near Paris, and after the American lady

In the morning the train was near Paris, and after the American lady

come out from the wash-room, looking very wholesome and middle-aged and American in spite of not having slept, and had taken the cloth off the birdcage and hung the cage in the sun, she went back to the restaurant-car for breakfast. When she came back to the lit salon compartment again, the beds had been pushed back into the wall and made into seats, the canary was shaking his feathers in the sunlight that came through the open window, and the train was much nearer Paris.

" He loves the sun, " the American lady said. " He'll sing now in a little while."

The canary shook his feathers and pecked into them.

" I've always loved birds, " the American lady said. " I'm taking him home to my little girl. There — he's singing now."

The canary chirped and the feathers on his throat stood out, then he dropped his bill and pecked into his feathers again. The train crossed a river and passed through a very carefully tended forest. The train passed through many outside of Paris towns. There were tram-cars in the towns and big advertisements for the Belle Jardiniere¹⁵ and Dubonnet and Pernod¹⁶ on the walls toward the train. All that the train passed through looked as though it were before breakfast¹⁷. For several minutes I had not listened to the Ameri­can lady, who was talking to my wife.

" Is your husband American too? " asked the lady.

" Yes, " said my wife. " We're both Americans."

" I thought you were English."

" Oh, no."

" Perhaps that was because I wore braces¹⁵", I said.

I had started to say suspenders and changed it to braces in the mouth, to keep my English character. The American lady did not hear. She was really quite deaf; she read lips, and I had not looked toward her. I had looked out of the window. She went on talking to my wife.

" I'm so glad you're Americans, American men make the best husbands, " the American lady was saying. " That was why we left the Continent¹⁹, you know. My daughter fell in love with a man in Vevey²⁰." She stopped. " They Were simply madly in love." She stopped again. " I took her away, of course."

" Did she get over it? " asked my wife.

" I don't think so, " said the American lady. " She wouldn't eat anything and she wouldn't sleep at all, I've tried so very hard, but she doesn't seem to take an interest in anything. She doesn't care about things. I couldn't have her marrying a foreigner." She paused. " Some one, a very good