er stranger
in this unceremonious way, she would have resented the assertion as a
personal insult--yet the preposterous and impossible thing had happened
and she was growing each moment more and more deeply interested in the
study of the remarkable youth by her side.

He was not handsome in the conventional sense. His features were too
strong for that. An enemy might have called them coarse. Their first
impression was of enormous strength and exhaustless vitality. He walked
with a quick, military precision and planted his small feet on the
pavement with a soft, sure tread that suggested the strength of a young
tiger.

The one feature that puzzled her was the size of his hands and feet.
They were remarkably small and remarkable for their slender, graceful
lines.

His eyes were another interesting feature. The lids drooped with a
careless Oriental languor, as though he would shut out the glare of the
full daylight, and yet the pupils flashed with a cold steel-blue fire.
One look into his eyes and there could be no doubt that the man behind
them was an interesting personality.

She wondered what his business could be. Not a lawyer or doctor or
teacher certainly. His timidity in handling books was clear proof on
that point. He was well groomed. His clothes were made by a first-class
tailor.

Her heart thumped with a sudden fear. Perhaps he was some sort of
criminal. His questions may have been a trick to lure her away....

They had just crossed the broad plaza at Fifty-ninth Street and entered
the walkway that leads to the Mall.

She stopped suddenly.

"It's too far to the hill beyond the Mall," she began hesitatingly.
"We'll find a seat in one of the little rustic houses along the
Fifty-ninth Street side----"

"Sure, if you say so," he agreed.

He accepted the suggestion so simply, she regretted her suspicions,
instantly changed her mind and said, smiling:

"No, we'll go on where we started. The long walk will do me good."

"All right," he laughed; "whatever you say's the law. I'm the little boy
that does just what his teacher says."

She blushed and shot him a surprised look.

"Who told you that I was a teacher?" she asked, with a smile.

"Lord, nobody! I had no idea of such a thing. It never popped into my
head that you do anything at all. You know, I was awful scared when I
spoke to you?"

"Were you?" she laughed.

"Surest thing you know! I'd 'a' never screwed up my courage to do it
if you hadn't