t as a lost child who
wildly claims its own again in some crowded street. He walked back
quickly, watching her until her own door swallowed her up.

He felt a lively rejoicing. The unpromising evening had done well by him
after all. Thinking but to look tenderly at a house front he had
veritably seen his lady--watched her with secret, unrestrained fondness.
He had an impulse to follow now and demand her at the door. But he
remembered in time; she would be engaged and he would see her soon. That
long look was adventure enough for one night.

But he could ring Teevan's bell. That would be a fine thing to do, for
Teevan had seen her. Teevan would speak of her, little knowing how his
words were hungered for. He was admitted and found the little man on the
hearth rug in the library, talking to himself with great animation. He
showed surprise, but his welcome was warmer than usual, Ewing thought.
He seated his guest and proffered him brandy, pouring a glass for
himself from a decanter almost empty. As he drank he beamed shrewdly on
Ewing--kindly but shrewdly. "He must have seen her--he must have seen
her ..." the little man was saying. Then a vagrant, elfish vanity smote
him. He smiled inscrutably on Ewing--Ewing, who had been waiting to say
lightly, "I happened to see Mrs. Laithe leaving...." But he did not say
this, for the little man's smile came to life in speech.

"Gad! my boy--I'm deuced glad you came. You can make me forget a most
distressing half hour I've just gone through."

The light in Ewing's eyes changed perceptibly.

"Oh, these women!" grumbled Teevan pleasantly, with the fine, humorous
resignation of a persecuted gallant.

"Women--women?" muttered Ewing, slightly aghast. Teevan's heart beat
blithely within his breast.

"Silly, romantic fools! What _do_ they see in a man of my years?" He
flourished a gesture of magnificent deprecation. "I think I once
mentioned a very irksome affair--" How he blessed, now, that bit of
boasting, vague and aimless at the time! "The lady, I blush to say it,
becomes exigent. But I'm rightly served. Heaven knows I've seen enough
of that sort of thing to know how it ends. But come"--he rose to a
livelier manner--"I shouldn't bore you with a matter I'm half ashamed
of, man of the world as I am. You'll sound the ennui of it, all in your
own good time, when you've lost a few of those precious illusions." He
broke off to ring, and directed the man to replenish the decanter.

Ewi