ar the sturdy ring
of her well-shod feet upon the road. There was an air of expectancy
about her walk, as though she looked to be met presently by some one
due from the opposite direction.

It was curious that I had not noticed her before, for she must have
been in sight for some time. No doubt my melancholy abstraction
accounted for that, and perhaps her presence there was to be explained
by a London train which I had listlessly observed come in to the town
an hour before. This surmise was confirmed, as presently,--over the
brow of a distant undulation in the road, I descried a farmer's gig
driven by another young woman. The gig immediately hoisted a
handkerchief; so did my pedestrian. At this moment I was within a yard
or two of overtaking her. And it was then the strange thing happened.

Distance had lent no enchantment which nearness did not a hundred times
repay. The immediate impression of strength and distinction which the
first glimpse of her had made upon me was more and more verified as I
drew closer to her. The carriage of her head was no whit less noble
than the queenly carriage of her limbs, and her glorious chestnut hair,
full of warm tints of gold, was massed in a sumptuous simplicity above
a neck that would have made an average woman's fortune. This glowing
description, however, must be lowered or heightened in tone by the
association of these characteristics with an undefinable simplicity of
mien, a certain slight rusticity of effect. The town spoke in her
well-cut gown and a few simple adornments, but the dryad still moved
inside.

I suppose most men, even in old age, feel a certain anxiety, conscious
or not, as they overtake a woman whose back view is in the least
attractive. I confess that I felt a more than usual, indeed a quite
irrational, perturbation of the blood, as, coming level with her, I
dared to look into her face. As I did so she involuntarily turned to
look at me--turned to look at me, did I say? "To look" is a feeble
verb indeed to express the unexpected shock of beauty to which I was
suddenly exposed. I cannot describe her features, for somehow features
always mean little to me. They were certainly beautifully moulded, and
her skin was of a lovely pale olive, but the life of her face was in
her great violet eyes and her wonderful mouth. Thus suddenly to look
into her face was like unexpectedly to come upon moon and stars
reflected in some lonely pool. I suppose the lo