He gave no sign; but when the low step gliding along the curbstone came to his feet he dodged in skilfully in front of the big turning wheel, and spoke up through the little trap door almost before the man gazing supinely ahead from his perch was aware of having been boarded by a fare.
It was not a long drive.

It ended by signal abruptly, nowhere in particular, between two lamp-posts before a large drapery establishment--a long range of shops already lapped up in sheets of corrugated iron for the night.

Tendering a coin through the trap door the fare slipped out and away, leaving an effect of uncanny, eccentric ghastliness upon the driver's mind.

But the size of the coin was satisfactory to his touch, and his education not being literary, he remained untroubled by the fear of finding it presently turned to a dead leaf in his pocket.

Raised above the world of fares by the nature of his calling, he contemplated their actions with a limited interest.