r for strangers to be beautiful. Aside
from this advantage of mystery, the approaching vision was piquant and
graceful enough to have reminded a much older boy of a spotless white
kitten, for, in spite of a charmingly managed demureness, there was
precisely that kind of playfulness somewhere expressed about her. Just
now it was most definite in the look she bent upon the light and fluffy
burden which she carried nestled in the inner curve of her right arm:
a tiny dog with hair like cotton and a pink ribbon round his neck--an
animal sated with indulgence and idiotically unaware of his privilege.
He was half asleep!

William did not see the dog, or it is the plain, anatomical truth
that when he saw how pretty the girl was, his heart--his physical
heart--began to do things the like of which, experienced by an elderly
person, would have brought the doctor in haste. In addition, his
complexion altered--he broke out in fiery patches. He suffered from
breathlessness and from pressure on the diaphragm.

Afterward, he could not have named the color of the little parasol she
carried in her left hand, and yet, as it drew nearer and nearer, a rosy
haze suffused the neighborhood, and the whole world began to turn an
exquisite pink. Beneath this gentle glow, with eyes downcast in thought,
she apparently took no note of William, even when she and William had
come within a few yards of each other. Yet he knew that she would look
up and that their eyes must meet--a thing for which he endeavored to
prepare himself by a strange weaving motion of his neck against the
friction of his collar--for thus, instinctively, he strove to obtain
greater ease and some decent appearance of manly indifference. He felt
that his efforts were a failure; that his agitation was ruinous and
must be perceptible at a distance of miles, not feet. And then, in
the instant of panic that befell, when her dark-lashed eyelids slowly
lifted, he had a flash of inspiration.

He opened his mouth somewhat, and as her eyes met his, full and
startlingly, he placed three fingers across the orifice, and also
offered a slight vocal proof that she had surprised him in the midst of
a yawn.

"Oh, hum!" he said.

For the fraction of a second, the deep blue spark in her eyes glowed
brighter--gentle arrows of turquoise shot him through and through--and
then her glance withdrew from the ineffable collision. Her small,
white-shod feet continued to bear her onward, away from him,