distance and in the shortest time on record he heard the clanging of her bicycle bell as she scorched down his drive.
"Puffy and stippled"—"Puffy and stippled"!
Mr. Withells repeated to himself this rudely personal remark as he walked slowly towards the house.
What could she mean?
And what in the world had he said to make her so angry?
Women were really most unaccountable.
He ascended his handsome staircase and went into his dressing-room, and there he sought his looking-glass, which stood in the window, and surveyed himself critically. Yes, his cheeks were a bit puffy near the nostrils, and, as is generally the case in later life, the pores of the skin were a bit enlarged, but for all that he was quite a personable man.
He sighed. Miss Ross, he feared, was not nearly so sensible as he had thought.
It was distinctly disappointing.