While he thus soliloquized, the nearest relatives of the deceased
victims issued from the church, seeking the carriages in waiting for
them. Among those who came next was a handsome, spirited-looking girl
of twenty-five, who, though not of the family group, was a sincere
mourner. As she stepped forward with the elasticity of youth, glad of
the fresh air on her tear-stained cheeks, it happened that she also
observed the presence of the reporter, and she paused, plainly
appalled. Her nostrils quivered with horrified distress, and she
turned her head as though seeking some one. It proved to be the young
man who had misjudged Harrington a few moments before. At least, he
sprang to her side with an agility which suggested that his eyes had
been following her every movement, thereby prompting Harrington, who
was ever on the alert for a touch of romance amid the prose of
every-day business, to remark shrewdly:

"That's plain as the nose on your face; he's her 'steady.'"

He realized at the same time that he was being pointed out in no
flattering terms by the young lady in question, who cast a single
haughty glance in his direction by way of identification. He saw her
eyes flash, and, though the brief dialogue which ensued was
necessarily inarticulate to him, it was plain that she was laying her
outraged feelings at the feet of her admirer, with a command for
something summary and substantial by way of relief.

At any rate, Harrington jumped at once to this conclusion, for he
murmured: "She's telling him I'm the scum of the earth, and that it's
up to him to get rid of me." He added, sententiously: "She'll find, I
guess, that this is about the most difficult billet a fair lady ever
intrusted to a gallant knight." Whereupon, inspired by his metaphor,