ght into the girl's
face and bursting out laughing, exclaimed, "Well, I think I have the
pleasure of being acquainted with you, but I must say that we both look
like drowned rats!"

"I look horrid!" she declared, staring at him half-dazed, putting her
hands to her dripping hair. "I know I must. But I have to thank you for
pulling me out. Only fancy, Mr. Hamilton--you!"

"Oh, no thanks are required! What we must do is to get to some place and
get our clothes dried," he said. "Do you know this neighbourhood?"

"Oh, yes. Straight over there, about a quarter of a mile away, is
Wyatt's farm. Mrs. Wyatt will look after us, I'm sure." And as she rose
to her feet, regarding her companion shyly, her skirts clung around her
and the water squelched from her shoes.

"Very well," he answered cheerily. "Let's go and see what can be done
towards getting some dry kit. I'm glad you're not too frightened. A good
many girls would have fainted, and all that kind of thing."

"I certainly should have gone under if you hadn't so fortunately come
along!" she exclaimed. "I really don't know how to thank you
sufficiently. You've actually saved my life, you know! If it were not
for you I'd have been dead by this time, for I can't swim a stroke."

"By Jove!" he laughed, treating the whole affair as a huge joke, "how
romantic it sounds! Fancy meeting you again after all this time, and
saving your life! I suppose the papers will be full of it if they get to
know--gallant rescue, and all that kind of twaddle."

"Well, personally, I hope the papers won't get hold of this piece of
intelligence," she said seriously, as they walked together, rather
pitiable objects, across the wide grass-fields.

He glanced at her pale face, her hair hanging dank and wet about it, and
saw that, even under these disadvantageous conditions, she had grown
more beautiful than before. Of late he had heard of her--heard a good
deal of her--but had never dreamed that they would meet again in that
manner.

"How did it happen?" he asked in pretence of ignorance of her
companion's presence.

She raised her fine eyes to his for a moment, and wavered beneath his
inquiring gaze.

"I--I--well, I really don't know," was her rather lame answer. "The bank
was very slippery, and--well, I suppose I walked too near."

Her reply struck him as curious. Why did she attempt to shield the man
who, by his sudden flight, was self-convicted of an attempt upon her
life?

Felix Krail