A Damsel in Distress

"My name is George Bevan. I am staying at the Carlton at present."

"I'll remember."

The taxi moved slowly down the Haymarket. The girl laughed.

"Yes?" said George.

"I was only thinking of back there. You know, I haven't thanked you

nearly enough for all you did. You were wonderful."

"I'm very glad I was able to be of any help."

"What did happen? You must remember I couldn't see a thing except

your back, and I could only hear indistinctly."

"Well, it started by a man galloping up and insisting that you had

got into the cab. He was a fellow with the appearance of a

before-using advertisement of an anti-fat medicine and the manners

of a ring-tailed chimpanzee."

The girl nodded.

"Then it was Percy! I knew I wasn't mistaken."

"Percy?"

"That is his name."

"It would be! I could have betted on it."

"What happened then?"

"I reasoned with the man, but didn't seem to soothe him, and

finally he made a grab for the door-handle, so I knocked off his

hat, and while he was retrieving it we moved on and escaped."

The girl gave another silver peal of laughter.

"Oh, what a shame I couldn't see it. But how resourceful of you!

How did you happen to think of it?"

"It just came to me," said George modestly.

A serious look came into the girl's face. The smile died out of her

eyes. She shivered.

"When I think how some men might have behaved in your place!"

"Oh, no. Any man would have done just what I did. Surely, knocking

off Percy's hat was an act of simple courtesy which anyone would

have performed automatically!"

"You might have been some awful bounder. Or, what would have been

almost worse, a slow-witted idiot who would have stopped to ask

questions before doing anything. To think I should have had the

luck to pick you out of all London!"

"I've been looking on it as a piece of luck--but entirely from my

viewpoint."

She put a small hand on his arm, and spoke earnestly.

"Mr. Bevan, you mustn't think that, because I've been laughing a

good deal and have seemed to treat all this as a joke, you haven't

saved me from real trouble. If you hadn't been there and hadn't

acted with such presence of mind, it would have been terrible!"

"But surely, if that fellow was annoying you, you could have called

a policeman?"

"Oh, it wasn't anything like that. It was much, much worse. But I

mustn't go on like this. It isn't fair on you." Her eyes lit up

again with the old shining smile. "I know you have no curiosity

about me, but still there's no knowing whether I might not arouse

some if I went on piling up the mystery. And the silly part is that

really there's no mystery at all. It's just that I can't tell

anyone about it."