It was exquisite in the park, and she was thinking how a delicate, floating blue curtain appeared to shut her away for a little while from all the harshness of life, when a small and singularly silent automobile glided by.  A lamp showed her the forms of two men in the open car, one in front, who drove, and one behind, who sat with arms folded.

“How heavenly to have the air and lean back restfully without needing to walk,” thought tired Win.

She was envying the comfortable figure with its arms folded when the little car turned and, to her astonishment, drew up close beside her.  Involuntarily she stopped; then, as one of the men jumped out, she regained her presence of mind and walked on at top speed.

The man strode along after her, however, and spoke.

“Don’t you remember me?  That’s very unkind.  You might wait a minute, anyhow, and let me remind you where we met.  I recognized you as I went by, that’s why I came back.”

Wondering if it could be possible that they had met, Win ventured a glance at the face on a level with her own.  She knew instantly that never had she seen it before.

“You’re mistaken,” she said.  “I don’t know you.  Please go.”

“Logan is my name,” he persisted.  “Jim Logan.  Now don’t you remember?  But you didn’t tell me your name that other time.”

Win took longer steps.  This active hint did not, however trouble Mr. Logan.  He was an inch or so taller than she, perhaps, and kept step with the utmost ease.

“You and I might have been at the same dancing school,” said he.  “I’m doing the newest stunt—­the wango.  Is that what you’re doing, too?  Or is it the y-lang-y-lango?  I could go on like this all night!  I hope you’re not engaged to anybody else for the next dance?”

“As a matter of fact, I am,” said Win sharply, though it was all she could do not to laugh.  “My partner will very much object to you.”

“That’s all right.  It’s not likely he knows jiu-jitsu as well as I do,” cheerfully replied the man, still hurrying on at the same pace.  He kept half a step in advance of the girl, as if to be prepared in case she should begin to run; and thus, without seeming to look, Win could see him in profile.

He was so smartly dressed that, in England, he would have been called a “nut.”  What was the American equivalent for a nut, she did not know.  He had a hawk-nosed profile which might have been effective had not his undercut jaw stuck out aggressively, suggesting extreme, hectoring obstinacy, even cruelty.

She had time to see that his hair was an uninteresting brown, and his skin the ordinary sallow skin of the man about town.  But suddenly he took her unawares, turning to face her with disquieting abruptness.  She caught an impression of eyes sparkling in the lamplight; small and set close on either side of a high-bridged, narrow nose, yet bright and boldly smiling.  His voice was that of an educated person and not disagreeable in tone, but Win was anxious to escape hearing it again.