'Of course,' the man in the brown hat said, 'there are good policemen and policemen, you know.' 'You are right,' the young man said.'Yes. That's very true. Isn't, Julie?' He looked at the young woman next to him. Julie didn't answer and looked bored. She closed her eyes. 'Julie's my wife,'the young man told the man in the brown hat. 'She doesn't like trains. She always feels ill on trains.' Oh yes?'the man in the brown hat said. 'Now my wife she doesn't like buses. She nearly had an accident on a bus once. It was last year... No,no,it wasn't. It was two years ago. I remember now. It was in Manchester.' He told a long, boring story about his wife and a bus in Manchester.
It was a hot day and the train was slow. There were seven people in the carriage. There was the man in the brown hat; the young man and his wife, Julie; a mother and two children;and a tall dark man in an expensive suit.