Myles knew quite well the tall, slim figure, the two dresses which she alternately wore--one a soft, flowing black one--another, soft and flowing too, of a blue so dark as to be nearly black. He knew that the lines of her dresses flowed gracefully, and were agreeable to the eye. He knew, too, the little black _fichu_ which she usually wore--a sort of apology for a mantle, which she never discarded on the hottest days; the modestly shaped white straw hat, with its carefully preserved black lace scarf, and bunch of daisies at one side, which hat she always ended in taking off after she had sat there ten minutes or so. She had a pale, clear, fair complexion, bright, warm chestnut hair, and a face which, not conventionally beautiful in outline, was full to overflowing of the subtler, more bewitching charm of a beautiful spirit. It--her face--had a youthful softness of outline--not full, but not thin, with a charming rounded chin, melting into the full white throat; a mouth whose lines attracted irresistibly, so good, so spiritual were their curves; an insignificant but well-cut nose; a pair of large, luminous, expressive eyes, which in some favourable lights might appear grey, but which an impartial observer must inevitably have confessed had a shade of green in them. Myles and this young lady had sat at neighbouring tables in the public reading-room almost every evening throughout the spring and summer months of that year. Whenever Myles came into the room he had found the young lady there; he could not, of course, tell whether she came when he was not there. Conversation in the reading-room was against the rules; but ‘conversation’ is an abstract noun of considerable indefiniteness, and one to which different minds may attach different meanings. A few words exchanged, of greeting or courtesy, could scarcely have come under the head of ‘conversation,’ or if it did, the rules were infringed every day. A little remark, as one passed the paper to the other--fifty little things might have been said (and were said by some frequenters of the room) without in the least disturbing the peace of the studious.