tators still lingered and small boys were sending off amateur
fireworks. Going outside, he became once more one of the throng, simply
because he had caught another glimpse of a face that interested and
mystified him.

It was the tall woman of the brown cloak, still watching everything with
eyes that missed no detail. She annoyed Prescott; she had become an
obsession like one of those little puzzles the solution of which is of
no importance except when one cannot obtain it. So he lingered in her
neighbourhood, taking care that she should not observe him, and he asked
two or three persons concerning her identity. Nobody knew her.

As the crowd, by and by, began to diminish, the woman turned away. The
outlines of her figure were not disclosed, but her step was swinging and
free, as that of one who had an abundance of health and vigour. She
spoke to nobody, but seemed sure of her way.

She went up Main Street, and Prescott, his curiosity increasing,
followed at a distance. She did not look back, and he closed up
gradually the gap between them, in order that he might not lose sight of
her if she turned around a corner. This she did presently, but when he
hastened and passed the corner, too, he found himself face to face with
the woman in brown.

"Well, sir?" she said sharply.

"Ah, I---- Excuse me, I did not see you. I turned the corner with such
suddenness," he said awkwardly, having an uneasy sense that he had been
intrusive, yet anxious to solve the troublesome little mystery.

"You were following me--and for the second time to-day."

He was silent, but his flushed face confirmed the truth of her
accusation. For the moment that he stood near he examined her features.
He saw eyes so dark that he could not tell whether they were blue or
black, eyelashes of unusual length, and a pale face remarkable for its
strength. But it was youthful and finely cut, while a wisp of bronze
hair at the edge of the hood showed a gleam of gold as the sunshine fell
across it.

"I have heard that Southern gentlemen were always courteous, as I told
you once before," she said.

"I thought I knew you, but made a mistake," Prescott replied, it being
the first thing that came into his mind. "I fear that I have been rude
and I ask your pardon."

He lifted his hat and bowed humbly.

"You can show contrition by ceasing to follow me," she said, and the
sharp tone of her accusation was still in her voice.

Prescott bowed again and turned a