he rail with an easy movement of his supple figure.
That was the first characteristic strangers usually noted in him: an
exquisite Hellenic grace of strength and faultless proportion. He was a
man's beauty, as distinguished from a beauty-man; other men were given
to admiring him extravagantly and unresentfully. Unresentfully, because
of his utter practicality and matter-of-fact atmosphere.

The afternoon sunshine glittered goldenly across the huge, green field
and the mile track circling it, where four racing cars sped in practice
contest. Two of them were painted gray, one was dingy-white; the fourth
shone in delicate pink enamel touched here and there with silver-gilt.
Its driver and mechanician were clad in pink also, adding the completing
stroke to an effect suggesting the circus rather than the race track.
There was much excuse for the laughter of the camps, and that reflection
of it lying in Gerard's eyes.

Yet, the rose-colored machine was well driven. More than once the
watcher nodded in quick approval of a skilful turn or deft manoeuvre.
Once he rose and changed his position to see more distinctly, and it
was then that he first noticed the girl.

She was so beautifully and expensively gowned as to draw even masculine
notice of the fact, the veil that fell from her silk hood to the hem of
her cloak would alone have purchased the motor costume of the average
woman. Against this filmy drapery her intent face showed as a study in
concentration; her dark-blue eyes wide behind their black lashes, her
soft lips apart, she too was watching the pink racer. But there was no
laughter in her expression, instead there was the most deep and earnest
tenderness, a blending of the childish and the maternal that made Gerard
catch his breath and glance enviously at the driver of the gaudy car.

The afternoon was almost ended; as Gerard looked, the pink machine
finished its last circuit and plunged through the paddock entrance, to
come to a halt before its own tent in the "white city" of training
camps. Simultaneously the girl in the upper rows of seats arose,
catching up her swirl of pale silk and lace garments and hurrying
precipitately down the stairway aisle. So great was her haste that,
coming suddenly to the last step, one small, high-heeled suede shoe
slipped from the iron edge and flung her violently against a column of
the stand. Gerard reached her just in time to prevent further fall.

"Stand still," he cautioned, qu