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movements and gravely attentive faces--these things thrilled her. She
noticed that the girls in the restaurant, in spite of their gravity
and industry, observed both herself and the big man with the minutest
inspection, and she felt that they all envied her the attentions of so
superb a companion. In the street also she found that many people
looked at them, but, listening to his constant and easy speech, she
could not give these people the attention they deserved.

When they did not go to the Park they sought the most reserved streets
or walked out to the confines of the town and up by the River Dodder.
There are exquisitely beautiful places along the side of the Dodder:
shy little harbors and backwaters, and now and then a miniature
waterfall or a broad placid reach upon which the sun beats down like
silver. Along the river bank the grass grows rank and wildly
luxurious, and at this season, warmed by the sun, it was a splendid
place to sit. She thought she could sit there forever watching the
shining river and listening to the great voice by her side.

He told her many things about himself and about his comrades--those
equally huge men. She could see them walking with slow vigor through
their barrack-yard, falling in for exercise or gymnastics or for
school. She wondered what they were taught, and who had sufficient
impertinence to teach giants, and were they ever slapped for not
knowing their lessons? He told her of his daily work, the hours when
he was on and off duty, the hours when he rose in the morning and when
he went to bed. He told her of night duty, and drew a picture of the
blank deserted streets which thrilled and frightened her ... the tense
darkness, and how through the silence the sound of a footstep was
magnified a thousandfold, ringing down the desolate pathways away and
away to the smallest shrill distinctness, and she saw also the alleys
and lane-ways hooded in blackness, and the one or two human fragments
who drifted aimless and frantic along the lonely streets, striving to
walk easily for fear of their own thundering footsteps, cowering in
the vastness of the city, dwarfed and shivering beside the gaunt
houses; the thousands upon thousands of black houses, each deadly
silent, each seeming to wait and listen for the morning, and each
teeming with men and women who slept in peace because he was walking
up and down outside, flashing his lantern on shop windows and feeling
doors to see if they wer