perfume of her person and her
genteel elegance reminded him of certain dubious ladies who were always
traveling alone when he was captain of the transatlantic liners. But
these acquaintances had been so rapid and were so far away!... Never in
his history as a world-rover had he had the good luck to chance upon a
woman just like this one.

Again exchanging glances with her, he felt that throb in the heart and
flash in the brain which accompany a lightning-like and unexpected
discovery... He had known that woman: he could not recall where he had
seen her, but he was sure that he must have known her.

Her face told his memory nothing, but those eyes had exchanged glances
with his on other occasions. In vain he reflected, concentrating his
thoughts.... And the queer thing about it all was that, by some
mysterious perception, he became absolutely certain that she was doing
the same thing at the very same moment. She also had recognized him,
and was evidently making great effort to give him a name and place in
her memory. He had only to notice the frequency with which she turned
her eyes toward him and her new smile, more confident and spontaneous,
such as she would give to an old friend.

Had her dragon not been present, they would have talked together
enthusiastically, instinctively, like two restless, curious beings
wishing to clear up the mystery; but the gold-rimmed glasses were
always gleaming authoritatively and inimically, coming between the two.
Several times the fat lady spoke in a language that reached Ferragut
confusedly and which was not English, and their dinner was hardly
finished before they disappeared just as they had done in the streets
of Pompeii,--the older one evidently influencing the other with her
iron will.

The following morning they all met again in a first-class coach in the
station of Salerno. Undoubtedly they had the same destination. As
Ferragut began to greet them, the hostile dame deigned to return his
salutation, looking then at her companion with a questioning
expression. The sailor guessed that during the night they had been
discussing him while he, under the same roof, had been struggling
uselessly, before falling asleep, to concentrate his recollections.

He never knew with certainty just how the conversation began. He found
himself suddenly talking in English with the younger one, just as on
the preceding morning. She, with the audacity that quickly makes the
best of a dubious si