The French lady on the back seat was asleep, too, yet in a half-conscious propriety of attitude, shown even in the disposition of the handkerchief which she held to her forehead and which partially veiled her face.

The lady from Virginia City, traveling with her husband, had long since lost all individuality in a wild confusion of ribbons, veils, furs, and shawls.

There was no sound but the rattling of wheels and the dash of rain upon the roof.

Suddenly the stage stopped and we became dimly aware of voices.

The driver was evidently in the midst of an exciting colloquy with someone in the road--a colloquy of which such fragments as "bridge gone," "twenty feet of water," "can't pass," were occasionally distinguishable above the storm.