She thought she saw—­she rubbed her eyes and looked again—­she did see, and surely never a stranger sight was beheld on Fairfield’s street!  Had a Royal Bengal tiger come slouching through the dust it could not have been more unusual.  The spectacle was a man; a very large and mighty shouldered man, who looked about him with a bold, imperious, keep-the-change regard.  There was something in the swing of him that suggested the Bengal tiger.  He wore high-heeled boots outside of his trousers, a flannel shirt with a yellow silk kerchief around his neck, and on his head sat a white hat which seemed to Miss Mattie to be at least a yard in diameter.  Under the hat was a remarkable head of hair.  It hung below the man’s shoulders in a silky mass of dark scarlet, flecked with brown gold.  Miss Mattie had seen red hair, but she remembered no such color as this, nor could she recall ever having seen hair a foot-and-a-half long on a man.  That hair would have made a fortune on the head of an actress, but Miss Mattie was ignorant of the possibilities of the profession.

The face of the man was a fine tan, against which eyes, teeth, and moustache came out in brisk relief.  The moustache avoided the tropical tint of the upper hair and was content with a modest brown.  The owner came right along, walking with a stiff, strong, straddling gait, like a man not used to that way of travelling.

Miss Mattie eyed him in some fear.  He would be by her house directly, and it was hardly modest to sit aggressively on one’s front porch, while a strange man went by—­particularly, such a very strange man as this!  Yet a thrill of curiosity held her for the moment, and then it was too late, for the man stopped and asked little Eddie Newell, who was playing placidly in the dust—­all the children played placidly in Fairfield—­asked Eddie, in a voice which reached Miss Mattie plainly, although the owner evidently made no attempt to raise it, if he knew where Miss Mattie Saunders lived?

Eddie had not noticed the large man’s approach, and nearly fell over in a fright; but seeing, with a child’s intuition, that there was no danger in this fierce-looking person, he piped up instantly.

“Y-y-yessir!—­I kin tell yer where she lives—­Yessir!  She lives right down there in that little house—­I kin go down with you jes’ swell ’s not!  Why, there she is now, on the stoop!”

“Thankee sonny,” said the big voice.  “Here’s for miggles,” and Miss Mattie caught the sparkle of a coin as it flew into the grimy fists of Eddie.

“Much obliged!” yelled Eddie and vanished up the street.

Miss Mattie sat transfixed.  Her breath came in swallows and her heart beat irregularly.  Here was novelty with a vengeance!  The big man turned and fastened his eyes upon her.  There was no retreat.  She noticed with some reassurance that his eyes were grave and kindly.

As he advanced Miss Mattie rose in agitation, unconsciously putting her hand on her throat—­what could it mean?