He turned quickly, and with a shade of haughtiness upon his face, which was lost in a smile as he recognised me.
'Ah,' he said courteously, 'good-morning! So you witnessed that pitiful affair. It does not fall to my lot to serve ladies.' He hesitated slightly, and then asked, 'Did you deliver up your find?'
I laughed and shook my head. I had fallen into step with him, and we were now moving slowly along his beat.
'If you refer to the lady with the dark eyes, who had the poor taste to ignore your presence,' I said, 'I did not. I may have committed a blunder, but my judgment condemned the little person.'
He turned toward me a quick look of interest.
'Then you thought——' He stopped, and the red blood dyed his face as on that first day.
'I thought,' I instantly took up the word, 'that she was an adventuress, not a companion or friend to the owner of the little bag.'
'And you were right,' he exclaimed. 'The lady who—who dropped the bag you found was alone when those foreign brutes with their palanquin ran against her. I was not near enough to reach her promptly; but I saw—and the other—the brunette, it is a strange fancy, perhaps, but I have thought that she had been following Miss—the lady, though for what purpose——' He stopped. 'It is no affair of mine. I—I am glad that the lady has her property.'
'But she has not got her property.'
'No? Pardon me, I did not understand.'