But while I was searching for the right word with which to address the girl, she had recovered her composure, recollected herself, lowered her eyes, and darted past me along the embankment. I immediately set off in pursuit of her, but she must have guessed my intention, for she left the embankment and, crossing the road, walked along the pavement. I did not dare to cross the road. My heart was fluttering like the heart of a captured bird. But quite an unexpected incident came to my assistance.

A gentleman in evening dress suddenly appeared a few yards away from the girl on the other side of the street. He had reached the age of discretion, but there was no discretion in his unsteady gait. He was walking along, swaying from side to side, and leaning cautiously against a wall. The girl, on the other hand, walked as straight as an arrow, quickly and apprehensively, as girls usually walk at night when they do not want any man to offer to accompany them home. And the reeling gentleman would most certainly not have caught up with her, if my good luck had not prompted him to resort to a stratagem. Without uttering a word, he suddenly set off in pursuit of the girl at an amazing speed. She was running away from him as fast as her legs would carry her, but the staggering gentleman was getting nearer and nearer, and then caught up with her. The girl uttered a shriek and—I have to thank my good genius for the excellent knobbly walking-stick which, as it happened, I was at the time clutching in my right hand. In less than no time I found myself on the other side of the street, and in less than no time the unwelcome gentleman took in the situation, took into account the undeniable fact of my superior weapons, grew quiet, dropped behind, and it was only when we were far away that he bethought himself of protesting against my action in rather forceful terms. But his words hardly reached us.

“Give me your arm,” I said to the girl, “and he won’t dare to molest you any more.”

She silently gave me her arm, which was still trembling with excitement and terror. Oh, unwelcome stranger! How I blessed you at that moment! I stole a glance at her—I was right! She was a most charming girl and dark, too. On her black eyelashes there still glistened the tears of her recent fright or her recent unhappiness—I did not know which. But there was already a gleam of a smile on her lips. She, too, stole a glance at me, blushed a little, and dropped her eyes.

“Well, you see, you shouldn’t have driven me away before, should you? If I’d been here, nothing would have happened.”

“But I didn’t know you. I thought that you too …”

“But what makes you think you know me now?”

“Well, I know you a little. Now why, for instance, are you trembling?”

“So you’ve guessed at once the sort of man I am,” I replied, overjoyed that the girl was so intelligent (this is never a fault in a beautiful girl). “Yes, you’ve guessed at once the sort of man I am. It’s quite true, I’m afraid, I’m awfully shy with women, and I don’t want to deny that I’m a little excited now, no less than you were a moment ago when that fellow scared you. Yes, I seem to be scared now. It’s as though it were all happening to me in a dream, except that even in a dream I did not expect ever to be talking to any woman.”

“How do you mean? Not really?”

“Yes, really. You see, if my arm is trembling now, it’s because it has never before been clasped by such a pretty little hand as yours. I’ve entirely lost the habit of talking to women. I mean, I never really was in the habit of talking to them. You see, I’m such a lonely creature. Come to think of it, I don’t believe I know how to talk to women. Even now I haven’t the faintest idea whether I’ve said anything to you that I shouldn’t.