, and I think that what you have said was
just what you should have said."

So they went down the street, the hubbub and confusion of the fire
growing more and more indistinct behind them. They walked slowly, and,
for a time, neither spoke; yet the silence was of a kind which the
adept rejoiced to have produced thus soon--their second meeting. For he
believed there were more strange things in heaven and earth than
Horatio wot; and one of the strangest was that whenever he was near
an attractive woman during a silence such as this, something not to be
defined, but as effective as it was indefinite, always went out from
him to her. It was like a word of tenderness, a word too gentle, too
compelling, too sweet, to be part of any tongue, spoken or written. And
more: this ineffable word had an echo, and came back to him from the
woman.

As his partner had in dress, so Crailey had with women, some color of
the Beau; but it was not in what experience had given him to recognize
as a fact: that they were apt to fall in love with him. (That they were
apt to remain in love with him--he understood perfectly--was another
matter.) And he knew when they were doing it; could have told them
accurately, at each step, what they were feeling, thinking, dreaming,
during the process, because he was usually exhibiting the same symptoms
to himself at the same time.

Thus, his own breast occupied with that dizzy elation which followed its
reception of the insane young god's arrows, and his heart warm with the
rise of the old emotion that he knew so well, he was nevertheless able
to walk with his finger on the pulse of the exquisite moment, counting
her heartbeats and his own.

So, to his fancy, as they walked, the little space between them was hung
with brilliant strands, like gossamer chains of gold, already linking
them together; every second fixing another slender, precious fetter,
binding them closer, drawing her nearer. He waited until they passed
into the shadows of the deserted Carewe Street before he spoke. There he
stopped abruptly; at which she turned, astonished.

"Now that you have saved my life," he said, in a low, tremulous tone,
"what are you going to do with it?"

Her eyes opened almost as widely as they had at her first sight of him
in her garden. There was a long pause before she replied, and when she
did, it was to his considerable surprise.

"I have never seen a play, except the funny little ones we acted at the
con