“Yes — he was very good-looking — rather small. I have never seen an Englishman who looked like him.”

“Why?”

“He was” — the mother made a quick, running movement with her hands — ”his figure was alive and changing — it was never fixed. He was not in the least steady — like a running stream.”

It flashed over the youth — Anna too was like a running stream. Instantly he was in love with her again.

Tom Brangwen was frightened. His heart always filled with fear, fear of the unknown, when he heard his women speak of their bygone men as of strangers they had known in passing and had taken leave of again.