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 seeing him, started with an impulse which she checked, as she had the one of the minute before. She stepped back from us a little, giving place to him.

He was as tall as Pete and heavier; in age, I placed him half-way between Pete's twenty-three years and my own twenty-eight. In energy and self-confidence I rated him beyond either of us, indeed beyond anyone I had ever seen.

The girl, I guessed, was used to encounters with him in which she had come off second best. There was contest between them. Whatever their relations, conquest of one over the other was not yet complete. This was the impression of that instant which excited and stirred me. Of course, liking her, I did not like him.

In any case, I think, he would have aroused antagonism in another man. I know now that he aimed at it.

He was good looking enough; I know some women held him handsome. He had sandy hair, exactly and aggressively brushed back; he had sandy, aggressive brows and a small,