Fiction > Book editions > London, 1885 - Dynamiter

THE SQUIRE OF DAMES. 11
his further progress. This street, ^vhose name I have
forgotten, is no thoroughfare.
He was not the first who had wandered there tliat
morning ; for as he raised his eyes with an agreeable
deliberation, they alighted on the figure of a girl, in
whom he was struck to recognise the third of the incon-
gruous fugitives. She had run there, seemingly, blind-
fold ; the wall had checked her career ; and being
entirely wearied, she had sunk upon the ground beside
the garden railings, soiling her dress among the summer
dust. Each saw the other in the same instant of time ;
and she, with one wild look, sprang to her feet and began
to hurry from the scene.
Challoner was doubly startled to meet once more the
heroine of his adventure and to observe the fear with
which she shunned him. Pity and alarm, in nearly equal
forces, contested the possession of his mind ; and yet, in
spite of both, he saw himself condemned to follow in the
lady's wake. He did so gingerly, as fearing to increase
her terrors ; but, tread as lightly as he might, his foot-
falls eloquently echoed in the empty street. Their sound
appeared to strike in her some strong emotion ; for
scarce had he begun to follow ere she paused. A
second time she addressed herself to flight ; and a second
time she paused. Then she turned about, and with
doubtful steps and the most attractive appearance of
timidity, drew near to the young man. He on his side
continued to advance with similar signals of distress and
Ijashfulness. At length, when they were but some steps
apart, he saw her eyes brim over, and she reached out
both her hands in eloquent appeal.
' Are you an English gentleman ? ' she cried.
The unhappy Challoner regarded her with consterna-
tion. He was the spirit of fine courtesy, and would have
blushed to fail in his devoirs to any lady ; but, in the
other scale, he was a man averse from amorous adven-
tures. He looked east and west ; but the houses that looked
down upon this interview remained inexorably shut ;
and he saw himself, though in the full glare of the day's
eye, cut off from any human intervention. His looks