"Have you ordered?" he asked.
She nodded.
"I am so sorry," she said, "but I am in no hurry. You can catch me up."
He ordered something from the waiter who was standing by, and then
turned again to her.
"You mustn't be unfair to me, please," he said. "It is only because I
hate to see you subjected to such affronts, that I have any feeling in
the matter at all. Couldn't you have a companion, or something of that
sort, if you must come to these places?"
She laughed softly.
"No!" she said, "I am afraid I couldn't do that, but if it really gives
you any satisfaction to hear it, I think that my search--I told you that
I had come to look for some one, didn't I?--will be over to-night, and
then it will not be necessary for me to do this sort of thing."
"I am glad," he answered heartily. "I am glad, that is to say, unless--"
"Unless what?"
"Unless it means your going back to America."
She raised her eyes to his.
"And how does that concern you?" she asked, simply.
"I wish to God I knew why it should!" he answered, almost bitterly. "Do
you know what a fool I have been making of myself for the last week or
so? I have given up my club and all my friends, refused every
invitation, and spent all my time going about from restaurant to
restaurant, cafe to cafe, hoping somewhere to come across _you_.
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