"He spoke of my beauty and called it marvellous," said the girl. "He said
that in all the world there was not another woman--oh, I can't tell you."

"Yes, yes, go on, Dorothy," I insisted.

"He said," she continued, "that he could think of nothing else but me day
or night since he had first seen me at Rowsley--that I had bewitched him
and--and--Then the other gentleman said, 'John, don't play with fire; it
will burn you. Nothing good can come of it for you.'"

"Did Jennie know who the gentleman was?" I asked.

"No," returned Dorothy.

"How do you know who he was?"

"Jennie described him," she said.

"How did she describe him?" I asked.

"She said he was--he was the handsomest man in the world and--and that he
affected her so powerfully she fell in love with him in spite of herself.
The little devil, to dare! You see that describes him perfectly."

I laughed outright, and the girl blushed painfully.

"It does describe him," she said petulantly. "You know it does. No one can
gainsay that he is wonderfully, dangerously handsome. I believe the woman
does not live who could refrain from feasting her eyes on his noble