And in his little peaked face there was much that was threatening to the
ultimate welfare of the legless beggar.




X


Barbara, ordinarily clear-minded and single-minded, drove uptown with
her thoughts in a state of chaos. She wished to think only about her
newly begun head of Satan fallen, since nothing else seemed to her at
the moment of any importance, but the face, hands, and voice of the
young secret-service agent refused to be banished, and kept suing for
kindly notice.

In almost the exact degree in which the legless beggar was repulsive to
her sense of perfection the secret-service agent was attractive. She had
never seen a man so agreeable to her eyes. And yet, as a marine artist
might see fame in painting a wreck upon a sea-shore, rather than a fine
new ship under full sail, so she felt that, artistically considered,
there was no comparison whatever between the two men. The face of the
elder compelled attention and study, and loosed in the observer's mind a
whole stream of conjecture and unanswerable questions. The face of the
younger began and ended perhaps in the attractions of youth and high
spirits. It was a face of which, should the mind back of it prove
wanting, you might tire, and learn to look upon as commonplace.

In the midst of unguided thinking Barbara laughed aloud; that small boy