Before the Dawn. Joseph A. Altsheler

Hall. Here Talbot was the first whom he met.

      "Where have you been?" asked his friend.

      "Following a woman."

      "Following a woman?"

      Talbot looked at Prescott in surprise.

      "I didn't know you were that kind of a man, Bob," he said; "but what luck?"

      "None at all. I failed even to learn her name, where she lived or anything else about her. I'll tell you more this evening, because I want your advice."

      The reception ended presently, and the ladies, escorted by the young men, went to their homes. Talbot, Winthrop and Raymond rejoined Prescott soon afterward near Shockoe Hill.

      "Now tell us of the woman you were following," said Talbot.

      "I don't think I shall," replied Prescott. "I've changed my intention about it—at least, for the present."

      The affair had clung to his mind and the result of his second thought was a resolution to keep it to himself a while longer. He had formed a suspicion, but it might be wrong, and he would not willingly do injustice to any one, least of all to a woman. Her face, when he saw her close at hand, looked pure and good, and now that he recalled it he could remember distinctly that there had been in it a touch of reproach and the reproach was for him—she had seemed to ask why he annoyed her. No, he would wait before speaking of her to his friends.