eight o'clock in the morning
Here , then , they had enforced a great fact of travelling , -- that people who serve the public are kindly and pleasant in proportion as they serve it well . The unjust and the inefficient have always that consciousness of evil which will not let a man forgive his victim , or like him to be cheerful . Our friends , however , did not heat themselves over the fact . There was already such heat from without , even at eight o'clock in the morning , that they chose to be as cool as possible in mind , and they placidly took their places in the train , which had been made up for departure . They had deliberately rejected the notion of a drawing-room car as affording a less varied prospect of humanity , and as being less in the spirit of ordinary American travel . Now , in reward , they found themselves quite comfortable in the common passenger-car , and disposed to view the scenery , into which they struck an hour after leaving the city , with much complacency . There was sufficient draught through the open window to make the heat tolerable , and the great brooding warmth gave to the landscape the charm which it alone can impart .