Before Longueville had time to verify this induction, he found his
eyes resting upon the broad back of a gentleman seated close to the old
lady, and who, turning away from her, was talking to a young girl.
It was nothing but the back of this gentleman that he saw, but
nevertheless, with the instinct of true friendship, he recognized in
this featureless expanse the robust personality of Gordon Wright. In a
moment he had stepped forward and laid his hand upon Wright's shoulder.
His friend looked round, and then sprang up with a joyous exclamation
and grasp of the hand.
"My dear fellow--my dear Bernard! What on earth--when did you arrive?"
While Bernard answered and explained a little, he glanced from his
friend's good, gratified face at the young girl with whom Wright had
been talking, and then at the lady on the other side, who was giving him
a bright little stare. He raised his hat to her and to the young
girl, and he became conscious, as regards the latter, of a certain
disappointment. She was very pretty; she was looking at him; but she was
not the heroine of the little incident of the terrace at Siena.
"It 's just like Longueville, you know," Gordon Wright went on; "he
always comes at you from behind; he 's so awfully fond of surprises.
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