the building, leaned against it, and thanked him demurely.
“I think my ankle is strained,” she said. “It twisted when I fell.”
“Does it pain you much?” inquired Chandler.
“Only when I rest my weight upon it. I think I will be able to walk in a minute or two.”
“If I can be of any further service,” suggested the young man, “I will call a cab, or———”
“Thank you,” said the girl, softly but heartily. “I am sure you need not trouble yourself any further. It was so awkward of me. And my shoe heels are horridly common-sense; I can’t blame them at all.”
Chandler looked at the girl and found her swiftly drawing his interest. She was pretty in a refined way; and her eye was both merry and kind. She was inexpensively clothed in a plain black dress that suggested a sort of uniform such as shop girls wear. Her glossy dark-brown hair showed its coils beneath a cheap hat of black straw whose only ornament was a velvet ribbon and bow. She could have posed as a model for the self-respecting working girl of the best type.
A sudden idea came into the head of the young architect. He would ask this girl to dine with him.
[224]
