e point where Maple
runs into the Public Square, he made a turn into Main so abrupt as to
send the inner rear wheel up onto the curb.

"My!" gasped Missy, regaining her balance. "He IS wild, isn't he? Do you
think, maybe--"

She stopped suddenly. In front of the Post Office and staring at them
was that new boy she had heard about--it must be he; hadn't Kitty Allen
seen him and said he was a brunette? Even in her agitated state she
could but notice that he was of an unusual appearance--striking.
He somewhat resembled Archibald Chesney, one of airy fairy Lilian's
suitors. Like Archibald, the stranger was tall and eminently gloomy
in appearance. His hair was of a rare blackness; his eyes were dark--a
little indolent, a good deal passionate--smouldering eyes! His eyebrows
were arched, which gave him an air of melancholy protest against the
world in general. His nose was of the high-and-mighty order that comes
under the denomination of aquiline, or hooked, as may suit you best.
However he did not shade his well-cut mouth with a heavy, drooping
moustache as did Archibald, for which variation Missy was intensely
grateful. Despite Lilian's evident taste for moustached gentlemen, Missy
didn't admire these "hirsute adornments."

She made all these detailed observations in the second before blond
Raymond Bonner, handsomer but less interesting-looking than the
stranger, came out of the Post Office, crying:

"Hello, girls! What's up?--joined the circus?"

This bantering tone, these words, were disconcerting. And before, during
their relentless progress down Maple Avenue, the expressions of certain
people sitting out on front porches or walking along the street, had
occasioned uncertainty as to their unshadowed empressement. Still no
doubts concerning her own personal get-up had clouded Missy's mind. And
the dark Stranger was certainly regarding her with a look of interest
in his indolent eyes. Almost you might say he was staring. It must be
admiration of her toilette. She was glad she was looking so well--she
wished he might hear the frou-frou of her silken skirt when she walked!

The consciousness of her unusually attractive appearance made Missy's
blood race intoxicatingly. It made her feel unwontedly daring. She did
an unwontedly daring thing. She summoned her courage and returned
the Strange Boy's stare--full. But she was embarrassed when she found
herself looking away suddenly--blushing. Why couldn't she hold that
gaze?-