s cut on massive lines, on fleshy lines,
clean-shaven, and inclined to pallor. The hirsute blue tinge about
the jaw and lips helped to accentuate the virile strength of the long,
flexible mouth, which could be humorous, which could be sorrowful, which
could be grim. In the dark eyes of the man lay a wealth of experience,
acquired in a lifelong pilgrimage among many peoples, and to many lands.
His dark brows were heavily marked, and his close-cut hair was splashed
with gray.

Let us glance at the lady who accepted his white-gloved hand, and who
sprang alertly onto the platform beside him.

She was a woman bordering on the forties, with a face of masculine
vigor, redeemed and effeminized, by splendid hazel eyes, the kindliest
imaginable. Obviously, the lady was one who had never married, who
despised, or affected to despise, members of the other sex, but who had
never learned to hate them; who had never grown soured, but who found
the world a garden of heedless children--of children who called for
mothering. Her athletic figure was clothed in a "sensible" tweed
traveling dress, and she wore a tweed hat pressed well on to her head,
and brown boots with the flattest heels conceivable. Add to this a
Scotch woolen muffler, and a pair of woolen gloves, and you have a
mental picture of the second traveler--a truly incongruous companion for
the first.

Joining the crowd pouring in the direction of the exit gates, the
two chatted together animatedly, both speaking English, and the man
employing that language with a perfect ease and command of words which
nevertheless failed to disguise his French nationality. He spoke with
an American accent; a phenomenon sometimes observable in one who has
learned his English in Paris.

The irritating formalities which beset the returning traveler--and the
lady distinctly was of the readily irritated type--were smoothed away by
the magic personality of her companion. Porters came at the beck of his
gloved hand; guards, catching his eye, saluted and were completely his
servants; ticket inspectors yielded to him the deference ordinarily
reserved for directors of the line.

Outside the station, then, her luggage having been stacked upon a cab,
the lady parted from her companion with assurances, which were returned,
that she should hope to improve the acquaintance.

The address to which the French gentleman politely requested the
cabman to drive, was that of a sound and old-established hotel