He and his friend took several hasty strides forward, in order to glance at her countenance, and in it he was not disappointed. Her soft fair hair was dressed with that smart neatness which characterised her whole attire, and her big, innocent eyes were of that deep child-like blue so seldom seen in a girl after she has reached her teens. "By jove! What a ripping girl!" Raife again exclaimed in a low whisper of admiration. "I wonder who she can be, Teddy?" "Ah, I wonder!" echoed his companion, and the two smart, athletic young undergraduates followed the girls unnoticed, for they were chatting together, and laughing merrily, entirely absorbed in their conversation. Many persons were passing to and fro, as there always are on Southport seafront upon a summer's morning, and so many smart motor-cars whirling up and down, even though the month of August is not the smartest season. Raife Remington, eldest son of Sir Henry Remington, Baronet, was not usually impressionable where the fair sex were concerned. Yet from the moment his eyes had first fallen upon this pretty, fair-haired girl in black, he appeared to fall beneath the spell of her remarkable beauty. Within himself he was longing for an introduction to her, while Mutimer, because they were smart and stylish, had inwardly set them both down as members of some theatrical company. Yet their clothes and shoes were of palpably better quality than those worn by members of musical companies which visited Cambridge. Therefore he, like Raife, was much puzzled. Most girls are aware, by natural feminine intuition, when they are admired, but the pair walking before them were utterly unconscious of having attracted the attention of any one. Mutimer noticed this, and argued that they certainly could not be actresses. "I wonder where they're going?" remarked Raife in a whisper, but scarcely had the words left his mouth when a black and tan fox-terrier suddenly darted out from behind a man and, without provocation, attacked the dainty little pom and rolled it over ere any one was aware of it. The tiny dog's mistress screamed, and, bending, cried in alarm and appeal: "Snookie! Oh, my poor little Snooks!" In an instant Raife was on the spot, and with his cane beat off the savage terrier; then, picking up the little pom, which lay on the ground more frightened than hurt, he restored it to the arms of its frantic mistress. "He's not injured I think," Raife exclaimed. For the first time the fair-haired girl raised her blue eyes to his, startled and confused. "I--I'm so very much obliged to you," she stammered. "That man really ought to keep his horrid dog under control." "He ought--the brute!" chimed in Teddy Mutimer. "What a darling little dog," he added admiringly, stroking the fluffy little animal admiringly.