A Damsel in Distress

's that!" s

obliged," s

leasure," s

their general colour-scheme. They were shot with attractive little flecks of gold, matching perfectly the little streaks of gold which the sun, coming out again on one of his flying visits and now shining benignantly once more on the world, revealed in her hair. Her chin was square and determined, but its resoluteness was contradicted by a dimple and

d defensive, about this girl with which he could not imagine any man venturing to take liberties. The gold-brown eyes, as they met his now, were friendly and smiling, but he could imagine them freezing into a stare baleful enough and haughty enough to quell such a person as the silk-hatted young man with a single glance.

e summing him up, weighing him. That the inspection proved satisfactory was shown by the fact that at the end of this period she smi

ondering what it's a

hat George was wonde

"Not at all. It's

well bred to be inquisitive a

am. What was

d I can't

I to say to

hat do men usual

nation of all this. He stooped from his pedestal to make enquir

m a nice

d of his reason fo

d before," he said. "

eal your cab. Whe

e out without any money, so I shall

irl s

matter?" a

ost my

! Had it m

But enough to bu

sking wher

I'm a

going to,

at I admire so much in yo

e ref

in the cab at the hotel, while I go and get some money.

f you. Could you mana

ve just had

s. That would only be five shillings. Ten-and-six is the first-class

's somethin

t much,

u a sovereign. Then you'll be

ectly right. I shall be starving. But how

risk

have to be inquisit

't know where to

ystery about me.

d about it. I can't h

't mean

you did. Well, who

an. I am staying at th

reme

ly down the Haymark

said

know, I haven't thanked you nearly eno

I was able to b

couldn't see a thing except your bac

o the cab. He was a fellow with the appearance of a before-using advertise

irl n

rcy! I knew I w

er

is his

I could have

appened

inally he made a grab for the door-handle, so I knocked off hi

nother silver p

ouldn't see it. But h

happen to

to me," said G

girl's face. The smile died o

me men might have be

ly, knocking off Percy's hat was an act of simple cour

se, a slow-witted idiot who would have stopped to ask questions before doing

as a piece of luck-but en

and on his arm, a

emed to treat all this as a joke, you haven't saved me from real trouble. If you hadn'

was annoying you, you coul

with the old shining smile. "I know you have no curiosity about me, but still there's no knowing whether I might not arouse some if I

e to constitute the making

hists, or anything like those things you read about in books. I'm just in a perfe

y m

ook he

if you haven't repented of your rash offer and really are going to be so awfully kind as to let me have that money, wou

here? I'll be b

y we

t was literally the last he saw of her, for, when he returned not more than tw

unforeseen calamity the commis

ady took the

the ca

gone, sir, she got in again and

lexity, and might have continued to stand indefinitely, had no

sir! D

young man had sprung. One glance told George all. The hunt was up o

having regarded their late skirmish as a decisive battle from which there would be no rallying, he had overlooked the possibility of this annoying and unnecessary person following them in another cab-a task which, in the congested, slow-movin

said the sto

g him up and down, he could find no point about him that gave him the least pleasure, with the single exception

off! You thought you'd given me

eyed hi

with you," he said. "Someo

with fury. His face tu

sticu

ard! Where's

Until that moment he had looked upon this man as a Lothario, a pursuer of damsels. That the other could possibly have any r

r si

hat I said.

He felt foolish and apologetic. He had imagined himself unassai

ough the medium of this man, brother or no brother-checked him. He did not know what it was all about, but the one thing that did stand out clearly in the we

at you're talkin

ok a large, glove

black

lid into the heated scene like the H

s all

d easily on his broad belt. The fingers of the other hand caressed lightly a moustache that had caused more heart-burnings a

s all

is voice, when he replied, had precisely the correct not

lder brother to help him out of his difficulties which made the constable his ally on the spot. "I was stan

d the stout young m

said austerely. "This sort o'

nds off me!"

Olympian brow. Jove reac

shocked voice, as of a god defied

but this time not in a mere warning tap. T

ung man. Common prudence and the lessons of a carefully-taught youth fell from him like a garme

left hand removed itself from the belt, and he got a businessli

one of the most public spots in London; the next, the focus had shifted; he had ceased to matter; and the entire attention of the metropolis was focuse

ymarket, followed by a growing and increasingly

is the middle of a perfect da