The houses they passed now grew scattering,
and the quarter of the town more neglected.
Warwick felt himself wondering where the girl
might be going in a neighborhood so uninviting.
When she stopped to pull a half-naked negro
child out of a mudhole and set him upon his feet,
he thought she might be some young lady from the
upper part of the town, bound on some errand of
mercy, or going, perhaps, to visit an old servant or
look for a new one. Once she threw a backward
glance at Warwick, thus enabling him to catch a
second glimpse of a singularly pretty face. Perhaps
the young woman found his presence in the
neighborhood as unaccountable as he had deemed
hers; for, finding his glance fixed upon her, she
quickened her pace with an air of startled timidity.

"A woman with such a figure," thought Warwick,
"ought to be able to face the world with the
confidence of Phryne confronting her judges."


By this time Warwick was conscious that
something more than mere grace or beauty had
attracted him with increasing force toward this
young woman. A suggestion, at first faint and
elusive, of something familiar, had grown stronger
when he heard her voice, and became more and
more pronounced with each rod of their advance;
and when she stopped finally before a gate, and,