Brendon, however, came hither by a direct path over the moors.  Leaving Princetown railway station upon his left hand he set his face west where the waste heaved out before him dark against a blaze of light from the sky.  The sun was setting and a great glory of gold, fretted with lilac and crimson, burned over the distant earth, while here and there the light caught crystals of quartz in the granite boulders and flashed up from the evening sobriety of the heath.

Against the western flame appeared a figure carrying a basket.  Mark Brendon, with thoughts on the evening rise of the trout, lifted his face at a light footfall.  Whereupon there passed by him the fairest woman he had ever known, and such sudden beauty startled the man and sent his own thoughts flying.  It was as though from the desolate waste there had sprung a magical and exotic flower; or that the sunset lights, now deepening on fern and stone, had burned together and became incarnate in this lovely girl.  She was slim and not very tall.  She wore no hat and the auburn of her hair, piled high above her forehead, tangled the warm sunset beams and burned like a halo round her head.  The colour was glorious, that rare but perfect reflection of the richest hues that autumn brings to the beech and the bracken.  And she had blue eyes—­blue as the gentian.  Their size impressed Brendon.

He had only known one woman with really large eyes, and she was a criminal.  But this stranger’s bright orbs seemed almost to dwarf her face.  Her mouth was not small, but the lips were full and delicately turned.  She walked quickly with a good stride and her slight, silvery skirts and rosy, silken jumper showed her figure clearly enough—­her round hips and firm, girlish bosom.  She swung along—­a flash of joy on little twinkling feet that seemed hardly to touch the ground.

Her eyes met his for a moment with a frank, trustful expression, then she had passed.  Waiting half a minute, Brendon turned to look again.  He heard her singing with all the light-heartedness of youth and he caught a few notes as clear and cheerful as a grey bird’s.  Then, still walking quickly, she dwindled into one bright spot upon the moor, dipped into an undulation, and was gone—­a creature of the heath and wild lands whom it seemed impossible to imagine pent within any dwelling.

The vision made Mark pensive, as sudden beauty will, and he wondered about the girl.  He guessed her to be a visitor—­one of a party, perhaps, possibly here for the day alone.  He went no farther than to guess that she must certainly be betrothed.  Such an exquisite creature seemed little likely to have escaped love.  Indeed love and a spirit of happiness were reflected from her eyes and in her song.  He speculated on her age and guessed she must be eighteen.  He then, by some twist of thought, considered his personal appearance.  We are all prone to put the best face possible upon such a matter, but Brendon