The following text is adapted from Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton’s 1885 novel The Squatter and the Don. Mercedes and Clarence, who develop a romantic relationship in the novel, have been traveling with a group of friends.
[Mercedes] was very pale, and her hands yet trembled, when the thundering of the east-bound train was heard in the distance. Two shrieks more, and the air vibrated simultaneously, as the two trains passed each other. Mercedes gave accelerated throbs when she heard those shrieks because she knew that one of them came from the train which took Clarence away, and it seemed to her as if expressive of his pain at being torn from her. Yes, that magician, the locomotive, understood it all, and shrieked to say he did so, because he knew she, too, wished to shriek like that.
[Mercedes] was very pale, and her hands yet trembled, when the thundering of the east-bound train was heard in the distance. Two shrieks more, and the air vibrated simultaneously, as the two trains passed each other. Mercedes gave accelerated throbs when she heard those shrieks because she knew that one of them came from the train which took Clarence away, and it seemed to her as if expressive of his pain at being torn from her. Yes, that magician, the locomotive, understood it all, and shrieked to say he did so, because he knew she, too, wished to shriek like that.