ships he had seen, as a boy, quietly berthed by a familiar wharf,
but with the breath of far seas and strange harbours in their
shrouds. . . Certainly this girl would understand. He went up
to her quietly, lifting his hat, observing the forms--wishing her
to see at once that he was "a gentleman."

"I am a stranger to you," he began, sitting down beside her, "but
your face is so extremely intelligent that I feel. . . I feel it
is the face I've waited for . . . looked for everywhere; and I
want to tell you--"

The girl's eyes widened: she rose to her feet. She was escaping
him!

In his dismay he ran a few steps after her, and caught her
roughly by the arm.

"Here--wait--listen! Oh, don't scream, you fool!" he shouted
out.

He felt a hand on his own arm; turned and confronted a policeman.
Instantly he understood that he was being arrested, and something
hard within him was loosened and ran to tears.

"Ah, you know--you KNOW I'm guilty!"

He was conscious that a crowd was forming, and that the girl's
frightened face had disappeared. But what did he care about her
face? It was the policeman who had really understood him. He
turned and followed, the crowd at his heels. . .