268 To the River Plate and Back 



man, who came in a few moments later, seated himself. 

 I ventured to converse with the latter, and he informed 

 me that he was a Bolivian on his way home to La Paz 

 by way of Salta and Jujuy. While we sat and talked 

 the lady never uttered a sound, and accepted what was 

 placed before her, as course followed course, without 

 note or comment. She seemed to me to be in trouble, 

 but I did not venture to speak to her. At last my 

 Bolivian acquaintance rose to leave the table, and I 

 was about to follow his example, when the young lady 

 broke her silence by saying to me, ' Dear sir, are you 

 an Englishman?' I replied, "Not exactly, but I come 

 very near to being one. I am an American a North 

 American.' "Oh!' she said, 'I have always heard 

 that your people are horrid. They teach us that in 

 Argentina, among the circles in which I move; but you 

 do not look as if you could be unkind. ' With that she 

 handed me a card, telling me that it was her father's 

 card. I glanced at it and recognized that it was the 

 card of a man who held a responsible position in a great 

 firm in Buenos Aires. 'I am in deep trouble,' she 

 went on to say. "My father, whose card I have given 

 you, brought me to the train this morning and saw me 

 off. I had a compartment, which I supposed I would 

 occupy alone on my journey to Tucuman, whither I am 

 going without escort, to meet friends who live there. 

 I do not speak a word of Spanish. After we were under 

 way a woman was brought and put into the compart- 

 ment with me. I did not object, but presently she 

 produced a bottle or two from her belongings, and since 

 the middle of the afternoon she has been in a state of 

 complete intoxication. At Rosario they put two other 

 women into the compartment to occupy the upper 

 berths. Of these women I cannot tell you what I 



