He was a short distance beyond the mouth of the alleyway when a gharry rolled by. He started to call after it--an impulse born dead. It was not late; he would walk. Motion accelerated his thoughts. And he wanted to think.
As he strode along the street, fragments of the obese mandarin's conversation slid into his brain and receded, like waves gently insinuating themselves upon a beach. Casually (he had turned into a narrow highway of balconies, of swinging signs and Chinese scrolls) he noticed a white woman on the opposite side of the street--only noticed her, for he knew the type that haunted this quarter. He would have expelled her instantly from his mind had not she moved from the shadow into a band of light that extended beyond a doorway; had not he seen her pause and draw away, as from a plague, as a Chinaman slunk past. The glow fell upon a face of old ivory hue, upon hair as bronze as the lettering upon the black scroll above her wide-brimmed hat.
The girl evidently recognized him as he recognized her, for she darted out of the band of light and to his side. Dark eyes looked into his from under the brim of her hat. She smiled, half with fright, half ashamed.
"I--I've been very foolish," she said, much after the manner of a truant child. "Please take me out of this dreadful place!"
Trent did not speak immediately; grasped her arm; looked about; hailed a dilapidated carriage that was rattling by. As it came to a halt he said "Get in!" much after the manner of a stern parent.
She smiled again, that same half-frightened, half-ashamed smile, and obeyed.
Thus she of the bronze hair stepped from Trent's world-scroll into a sphere of more intimate association.
"Really, I don't know what to say. I hope you don't think--"
"I think as you do," he interposed, "that you've been very foolish."
She laughed tremulously. A voice as soft as a gentle monsoon rain--a voice that slurred over its words. Wisps of hair were burnished by passing lights; her throat shone palely. Only the eyes were in the shadow--dark eyes, deep with mystery and a promise of revelations.... Old ivory and bronze. A picture of soft tones and colors.
"My brother would--well, I hardly know what he _would_ do if he knew about this!"