When she asked her brother he made no objection but undertook to put them all up for the night. So on Saturday morning the eight o'clock express carried off Madame and her companions in a second class carriage.  As far as Beuzeille they were alone and chattered like magpies, but at that station a couple got  in.

The man, an aged peasant... wore an old high hat.  He held an enormous green umbrella in one hand and a large basket in the other, from which the heads of three frightened ducks protruded. The woman... had a face like a fowl and a nose like a bill.  She sat down next to her husband and did not stir as she was startled to find herself in such smart company.

At Bolbec a gentleman, who was a commercial traveler, offered the ladies, by way of a joke, a parcel containing garters.  There were blue, pink, red, violet and mauve silk garters, and the buckles were made of two gilt metal cupids.  He added cunningly:  "I offer any pair they like to those who will try them on."

...Lastly, Madame herself put out her leg, a handsome muscular Norman leg, and in his surprise and pleasure the commercial traveler gallantly took off his hat to salute that master calf, like a true French cavalier.