into step with
him, began:

'I hope you understood my meaning when I went into ambush so suddenly?
I really did not care to encounter your friend.'

'That is hardly the right name, seeing that the lady is a stranger to
me,' he replied, slightly smiling.

'Indeed!' I retorted. 'Then may I wager that I know what she had to
say to you?' I saw him flush, and his lips compress themselves as if
to hold back some hasty speech, but I went lightly on: 'That is the
young person who claimed the bag belonging to your acquaintance--you
remember the circumstance--and if she is still as angry at me as she
was on that day she was doubtless imploring you to "run me in," and
put me in more irons than Christopher Columbus ever wore. Honestly
now, am I not right?'

He was silent and seemed perplexed again, and I promptly changed my
tone. 'If I am mistaken, and if the young woman is someone you know, I
beg your pardon; but, remembering how she turned her look upon you on
the occasion of that first meeting----'

'One moment,' he broke in. 'It is possible that we have been unjust in
this case, and I think I may tell you, without a breach of confidence,
what this young lady'--I thought he emphasized the 'lady'
somewhat--'who by-the-by is a stranger to me, had to say just now.'

I bowed my assent, lest speech might cause a discussion, and he went
on:

'The young lady, after excusing herself for doing what she termed an
unconventional thing in addressing me, asked at once after you.'

'After me? But--go on.'

'She spoke of you as "the person" I was talking with on the day when
her friend lost her bag and she tried to reclaim it, and when I
disclaimed all knowledge of you, she told me how "cavalierly"--that is
also her word--you refused to yield up the bag, and how anxiously her
friend was hoping to secure that bag--even yet.'

'Ah! Indeed!'

'You will pardon me,' he went on, not heeding my interjection, and
speaking with marked courtesy, 'but I almost fear you have mistaken
this young lady.'

'Why?'

'Because she not only gave me the name of the owner of the bag, but
she assured me that the lady recognised me in passing, a thing which I
regret, and she called me by my name.'

Here was a coil indeed. My head was a nest of queer thoughts and
suspicions, but I kept to the subject by asking:

'And may I ask how you replied to all this?'

'In the only way I could. You were a stranger, who was anxious, I felt
sure, to restore t