Doctor in the bar-room, which was full of people. It is a public hall, where travellers and passers-by mingled together, finding gratis iced-water, biscuits, and cheese.
"Well, Doctor," said I, "when shall we start?"
"At six o'clock this evening."
"Shall we take the Hudson railroad?"
"No; the 'St. John;' a wonderful steamer, another world—a 'Great Eastern' of the river, one of those admirable locomotive engines which go along with a will. I should have preferred showing you the Hudson by daylight, but the 'St. John' only goes at night. Tomorrow, at five o'clock in the morning, we shall be at Albany. At six o'clock we shall take the New York Central Railroad, and in the evening we shall sup at Niagara Falls."
I did not discuss the Doctor's programme, but accepted it willingly.
The hotel lift hoisted us to our rooms, and some minutes later we descended with our tourist knapsacks. A fly took us in a quarter of an hour to the pier on the Hudson, before which was the "St John," the chimneys of which were already crowned with wreaths of smoke.
