But he did not catch her.

Indeed he did not lessen the distance between them to an extent appreciable by the naked eye.
For a delicate princess she was running with uncommon speed and endurance.

Considering his dress and boots and the roughness of the going, he, too, was running with uncommon speed and endurance.

It was true that his face was a very bright red and that his so lately stiff, tall, white collar lay limply gray round his neck.

But he was not near enough to his quarry to be mortified by seeing that she was but faintly flushed by her efforts and hardly perspiring at all.