hout knowing why.

He was lost in these thoughts, and had indeed wandered almost into the
little wood that lies at the foot of the Orchards, when he heard a deep
rich voice say:

"I suppose you 'aven't such a thing as a match upon you anywhere, young
gentleman?"

He liked to be asked for a match, a manly thing to be supposed to
possess, but, of course, he hadn't one, owing to the stupidity of
elderly relations, so he looked up and said politely: "No, I'm afraid
I haven't." Then how his heart whacked beneath his waistcoat! There,
standing in front of him, was the very figure of his dreams! Looking
down upon Jeremy was a gentleman of middle-age whom experienced men of
the world would have most certainly described as "seedy."

Jeremy did not see his "seediness." He saw first his face, which was of
a deep brown copper colour, turning here and there to a handsome purple;
ill-shaved, perhaps, but with a fine round nose and a large smiling
mouth. He saw black curling hair and a yachting cap, faded this last and
the white of it a dirty grey but set on jauntily at a magnificent angle.
He saw a suit of dark navy blue, this again faded, spotted too with many
stains, ragged at the trouser-ends and even torn in one place above the
elbow, fitting also so closely to the figure that it must have been at
bursting point. He saw round the neck a dark navy handkerchief, and down
the front of the coat brass buttons that shook and trembled as their
owner's chest heaved.

And what a chest! Jeremy had never conceived that any human being could
be so thick and so broad. The back, spreading to the farthest limits of
the shiny seams of the coat, was like a wall. The thighs were pillows,
the arms bolsters and yet not fat, mind you, simply muscle, all of
it. One could see in a minute that it was all muscle, the chest thrust
forward, the legs spread wide, the bull-neck bursting the handkerchief,
everything that Jeremy himself most wished to be. A sailor, a monument
of strength, with the scent of his "shag" strong enough to smell a mile
away, and--yes, most marvellous of all, gold rings in his ears! His
chest would be tatooed probably, and perhaps his legs also!

There, on the back of his hand, was a blue anchor.... Jeremy looked
up and trembled lest the vision should fade, then flung a hurried look
around him to see whether Miss Jones were near. No one was about. He was
alone with the desire of his life.

"I'm so so sorry I haven't a match,"