Beside  him  he  had  a  black  leather  satchel  that  he  never
opened;  he  had  three  or  four  newspapers  which  he  never
glanced  at ;  out  of  his  two  coat  pockets  stuck  several  documents
that  he  never  took  out.  During  all  these  hours  but  two  differ-
ent changes  were  observed  in  his  position.  From  time  to  time,
perhaps  at  regular  intervals  prefixed  by  some  law  of  nature,  he


^


368  RUBE

would  raise  his  hands  from  his  paunch  and  place  them  upon
his  knees,  which  were  wide  apart.  Then,  after  a  period  of
about  the  same  length  had  passed,  he  would  lift  them  from
his  knees  and  lead  them  back  to  his  belly.  Exactly  three  times
he  extracted  from  his  outside  bosom  pocket  an  oblong  note-
book, bound  in  maroon  cloth,  and,  having  opened  it,  would
note  down  a  short  item.  Though  he  wrote  in  pencil,  he  seemed
to  engrave  the  words  upon  the  page  in  the  conviction  that
they  possessed  an  imperishable  significance;  and  however  fast
the  train  might  be  speeding,  it  was  certain  that  the  line  was  in-
flexibly horizontal  and  that  the  handwriting  was  calligraphic.
