I sat briskly up,
and as I did so my eyes rested on the figure of a lady
in a brown jacket and carrying a paint-box. By her
side walked a fellow some years older than myself, with
an easel under his arm; and alike by their course and
cargo I might judge they were bound for the gallery,
where the lady was, doubtless, engaged upon some
copying. You can imagine my surprise when I recognised
in her the heroine of my adventure. To put the matter
beyond question our eyes met, and she, seeing herself
remembered, and recalling the trim in which I had last
beheld her, looked swiftly on the ground with just a
shadow of confusion.
I could not tell you to-day if she were plain or
pretty; but she had behaved with so much good sense,
and I had cut so poor a figure in her presence, that I
became instantly fired with the desire to display
myself in a more favourable light. The young man,
besides, was possibly her brother; brothers are apt to
be hasty, theirs being a part in which it is possible,
at a comparatively early age, to assume the dignity of
manhood; and it occurred to me it might be wise to
forestall all possible complications by an apology.
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