e
stranger more closely. Her face was bent listlessly over a book; there
was unmistakably the same profile that he had seen, but the full face
was different in outline and expression. A strange sense of
disappointment that was almost a revulsion of feeling came over him; he
lingered, he glanced again; she was certainly a very pretty woman:
there was the beautifully rounded chin, the short straight nose, and
delicately curved upper lip, that he had seen in the profile,--and
yet--yet it was not the same face he had dreamt of. With an odd,
provoking sense of disillusion, he swept ahead of the coach, and again
slackened his speed to let it pass. This time the fair unknown raised
her long lashes and gazed suddenly at this persistent horseman at her
side, and an odd expression, it seemed to him almost a glance of
recognition and expectation, came into her dark, languid eyes. The
pupils concentrated upon him with a singular significance, that was
almost, he even thought, a reply to his glance, and yet it was as
utterly unintelligible. A moment later, however, it was explained. He
had fallen slightly behind in a new confusion of hesitation, wonder,
and embarrassment, when from a wooded trail to the right, another
horseman suddenly swept into the road before him. He was a powerfully
built man, mounted on a thoroughbred horse of a quality far superior to
the ordinary roadster. Without looking at Key he easily ranged up
beside the coach as if to pass it, but Key, with a sudden resolution,
put spurs to his own horse and ranged also abreast of him, in time to
see his fair unknown start at the apparition of this second horseman
and unmistakably convey some signal to him,--a signal that to Key's
fancy now betrayed some warning of himself. He was the more convinced
as the stranger, after continuing a few paces ahead of the coach,
allowed it to pass him at a curve of the road, and slackened his pace
to permit Key to do the same. Instinctively conscious that the
stranger's object was to scrutinize or identify him, he determined to
take the initiative, and fixed his eyes upon him as they approached.
But the stranger, who wore a loose brown linen duster over clothes that
appeared to be superior in fashion and material, also had part of his
face and head draped by a white silk handkerchief worn under his hat,
ostensibly to keep the sun and dust from his head and neck,--and had
the advantage of him. He only caught the flash of a pa