his touch, giving him the delights of manly dominion, of tender
authority. It was he who insisted on the aristocratic seclusion
afforded by the private chair; who, with the careless indifference of a
man to whom pennies were unimportant, would pay for them both. Once on
his way through Piccadilly Circus he had paused by the fountain to
glance at a great basket of lilies of the valley, struck suddenly by
the thought how strangely their little pale petals seemed suggestive of
her.

"'Ere y' are, honey. Her favourite flower!" cried the girl, with a
grin, holding a bunch towards him.

"How much?" he had asked, vainly trying to keep the blood from rushing
to his face.

The girl paused a moment, a coarse, kindly creature.

"Sixpence," she demanded; and he bought them. She had meant to ask him
a shilling, and knew he would have paid it. "Same as silly fool!" she
called herself as she pocketed the money.

He gave them to her with a fine lordly air, and watched her while she
pinned them to her blouse, and a squirrel halting in the middle of the
walk watched her also with his head on one side, wondering what was the
good of them that she should store them with so much care. She did not
thank him in words, but there were tears in her eyes when she turned
her face to his, and one of the little fawn gloves stole out and sought
his hand. He took it in both his, and would have held it, but she
withdrew it almost hurriedly.

They appealed to him, her gloves, in spite of their being old and much
mended; and he was glad they were of kid. Had they been of cotton,
such as girls of her class usually wore, the thought of pressing his
lips to them would have put his teeth on edge. He loved the little
brown shoes, that must have been expensive when new, for they still
kept their shape. And the fringe of dainty petticoat, always so
spotless and with never a tear, and the neat, plain stockings that
showed below the closely fitting frock. So often he had noticed girls,
showily, extravagantly dressed, but with red bare hands and sloppy
shoes. Handsome girls, some of them, attractive enough if you were not
of a finicking nature, to whom the little accessories are almost of
more importance than the whole.

He loved her voice, so different from the strident tones that every now
and then, as some couple, laughing and talking, passed them, would fall
upon him almost like a blow; her quick, graceful movements that always
brought b