"What are you doing that for?" hissed the man, clutching her arm. "You will have the police after us. Walk along quietly beside me, you little fool; I have something to say to you."
Terrified, Jessie only cried the louder and shriller, wrenching her arm free from the stranger's grasp.
At that instant a young man, who had happened along, and who had heard the cry, sprang with alacrity to the young girl's rescue.
"What is the matter?" he cried. "Is this fellow annoying you?"
Jessie knew the voice at once, and sprang forward. She had recognized the voice of the young architect.
"Oh, save me—save me!" she cried.
Even before she had time to utter a word the young man had recognized Jessie Bain; and that very instant the man who had dared thus annoy her was measuring his full length on the grass, sent there by the young architect's vigorous arm.
"I will have your life for this!" yelled the fellow, as he picked himself up, but taking good care to keep well out of the reach of the young girl's defender.
"What in the world are you doing in the park, and so far away from home, Miss Jessie?" Moray, the young architect, asked.
Her lips quivered and her eyes filled with sudden tears.