h you had spent a little
more time upon your toilet.

Although she had barely looked at him, Leonie could have described the
man before her down to the minutest detail.

No doubt about it he was good to look upon, with his steady eyes, the
straight ultra-refined nose with slightly-distended nostrils, and a jaw
which, in shape and strength, belied the almost feminine beauty of the
mouth.

He stood well over six feet, though you would hardly have thought so
because of the massive shoulders which seemed to have been created to
carry the troubles of the entire world.

His hands, the outward, visible and infallible sign of the inner man,
were perfect male hands, long and thin with square-tipped sensitive
fingers, and a certain look of steel about the back and wrists.

But although he had been looking at her steadily for quite a minute,
owing to some inexplicable overpowering sensation which had seized upon
him, he would most certainly not have been able to tell you the colour
of her hair or that her feet were bare.

"I beg your pardon," he said quite suddenly and a little hoarsely, "but
my dog brought me to you--and as I think the tide is on the turn, I
thought----"

But any further description of his thoughts was cut short in most
unseemly fashion as, with an ear-splitting bark, the terrier hurled
himself into the girl's lap, standing up to put its fore-paws round her
neck, wriggling and squirming until the four feet, collar, and head
were thoroughly knotted in the beautiful hair.

Leonie held on to her scalp to lessen the pain as stray hairs were
literally dragged out by the roots, whilst tears of agony streamed down
her face on to the man's hands as he held the squirming animal and
endeavoured to loosen its bonds.

"Cut it!"

"What! All that!"

"Oh! I can spare it, but I can't stand the pain much longer, and I
can't bear having my head touched. Look, I'll hold the dog firmly on
my lap and bend my head, it won't hurt quite as much then, only do be
quick!"

She put both hands on the shivering dog, who seemed to have sensed that
something had gone agley, and pressing him down upon her knees bent her
head, and her hair fell in waves about the man's feet as he unclasped a
pocket-knife.

What there was in the attitude, whether it was the humility of the bent
head or the utter abandon of the waving hair about his knees, the man
never knew, but he suddenly began to hack savagely and ruthlessly at
the great s