CAN AND COULD.
'No, there is not one,' said the conductor, and he looked in; most of the passengers were women.
'Would any gentleman like to go outside?'
'Like!' thought Could with a laugh; 'who would like in such a wind as this, so searching and wild? Thank Heaven, I never take cold; but I don't want a blast like this to air the lining of my paletôt, make itself acquainted with the pattern of my handkerchief, and chill the very shillings in my waistcoat pocket.'
'Because,' continued the conductor, 'if any gentleman would like to go outside, here is a person who has been ill, and would be very glad of a place within.'
He looked down, as he spoke, upon the man, whose clothes were not well calculated to defend him against the weather, and who looked sickly, and had a hollow cough. No answer came from within.
'I must get outside, then,' said the man, 'for I have not much time for waiting,' so he mounted, and the driver spread part of his own wrapper over his legs, another passenger having lent a hand to help him up.
'Thank you, sir,' said the man; 'I am but weak; but I am sorry to give you the trouble.'
'No trouble, no trouble,' answered the outside passenger; and he muttered to himself, 'You are not likely to trouble any one long.'
'That's where you come from, I suppose,' said the driver, pointing with his whip towards the house for consumptive patients.
'Yes,' said the man, 'I have been very ill indeed; but I am better now, wonderfully better. They say I may last for years with proper attention, and they tell me to be very careful of weather; but what can I do?'
