s voice ceased, some part of his attraction ceased.
But the moment the voice was again heard the magic of the man
returned as strong as ever.'

III

For some time during Winnie's narrative glimmerings of the
gentleman's identity had been coming to me, and what she said of the
voice seemed to be turning these glimmerings into shafts of light. I
was now in a state of the greatest impatience to verify my surmise.
But this only gave a sharper edge to my intense curiosity as to
_how_ she had been rescued by him.

'Winnie,' I said, 'you have said nothing about his appearance. Could
you describe his face?'

'Describe his face?' said Winnie. 'If I were a painter I could paint
it from memory. But who can paint a face in words?'

Then she launched into a description of the gentleman's appearance,
and gave me a specimen of that 'objective' power which used to amaze
me as a child but which I afterwards found was a speciality of the
girls of Wales.

'I should like a description of him feature by feature,' I said.

She laughed, and said, 'I suppose I must begin with his forehead
then. It was almost of the tone of marble, and contrasted, but not
too violently, with the thin crop of dark hair slightly curling round
the temples, which were partly bald. The forehead in its form was so
perfect that it seemed to shed its own beauty over all the other
features; it prevented me from noticing, as I afterwards did, that
these other features--the features below the eyes, were not in
themselves beautiful. The eyes, which looked at me through
spectacles, were of a colour between hazel and blue-grey, but there
were lights shining within them which were neither grey, nor hazel,
nor blue--wonderful lights. And it was to these indescribable lights,
moving and alive in the deeps of the pupils, that his face owed its
extraordinary attractiveness. Have I sufficiently described him? or
am I to go on taking his face to pieces for you?'

'Go on, Winnie--pray go on.'

'Well, then, between the eyes, across the top of the nose, where the
bridge of the spectacles rested, there was a strongly marked indented
line which had the appearance of having been made by long-continued
pressure of the spectacle frame. Am I still to go on?'

'Yes, yes.'

'The beauty of the face, as I said before, was entirely confined to
the upper portion. It did not extend lower than the cheek-bones,
which were well shaped.'

'The mouth, Winnie? Describe that, and then