Only an instant the revolt lasted, but in that instant of vision nothing mattered in life except romance, enchantment, adventure.
"Yes, I've missed life," she thought, and the regret was still in her mind when one of those miracles which in our ignorance we call accidents occurred.

Out of the lilac-scented twilight, out of the wild, sweet spirit of spring, a voice said in her ear, "Alice, you waited!" Turning quickly, she had a vivid impression of height, breadth, bigness, of roughened dark red hair, of gray eyes so clean that they looked 'as if they had been washed by the sea.

Then the voice spoke again: "I beg your pardon.

It was a mistake." And the next instant she was alone in the street..