The Girl herself stood on the threshold, and we stared at each other with bewildered eyes! II She was the most exquisite creature in all the wide world; and here she was, within reach of my hungry arms! "You?" she cried, stepping back, one hand at her throat and the other against the jamb of the door. Dumb as ever was Lot's wife (after the turning-point in her career), I stood and stared and admired. A woman would instantly have noticed the beauty of her sables, but I was a man to whom such details were inconsequent. "I did not expect ... that is, only the number of the apartment was given," she stammered. "I...." Then her slender figure straightened, and with an effort she subdued the fright and dismay which had evidently seized her. "Have you Mr. Chittenden's hat?" "Mr. Chittenden's hat?" I repeated, with a tingling in my throat similar to that when you hit your elbow smartly on a corner. "Mr. Chittenden's hat?" "Yes; he is so thoughtless that I dared not trust him to search for it alone. Have _you_ got it?" Heavens! how my heart beat at the sight of this beautiful being, as she stood there, palpitating between shame and anxiety! She _was_ beautiful; and I knew instantly that I loved her better than anything else on earth. "Mr. Chittenden's hat?" I continued, as lucid as a trained parrot and in tones not wholly dissimilar. "Can't you say anything more than that?"--impatiently. How much more easily a woman recovers her poise than a man, especially when that man gives himself over as tamely as I did! "Was it _your_ letter he was seeking?" I cried, all eagerness and excitement as this one sane thought entered my head. "Did he tell you that there was a letter in it?"--scornfully. "Yes,"--guiltily. Heaven only knows why I should have had any sense of guilt. "Give it to me at once,"--imperatively. "The hat or the letter?" Truly, I did not know what I was about. Only one thing was plain to my confused mind, and that was the knowledge that I wanted to put my arms around her and carry her far, far away from Toddy-One-Boy. "Are you mad, to anger me in this fashion?" she said, balling her little gloved hands wrathfully. Had there been real lightning in her eyes I'd have been dead this long while. "Do you dare believe that I knew you lived in this apartment?" "I ... haven't the hat." "You dared to search it?"--drawing herself up to a supreme height, which was something less than five-feet-two. I became angry, and somehow found myself. "I never pry into other people's affairs. You are the last person I expected to see this night." "Will you answer a single question? I promise not to intrude further upon your time, which, doubtless, is very valuable. Have you either the hat or the letter?" "Neither. I knew nothing about any letter till Mr. Chittenden came. But he came too late." "Too late?"--in an agonized whisper.