The first of these, a shrewd-faced, nervous little man, borrowed an
unneeded match of me and remarked that it was cold weather for spring.
The next, a good-looking young foreigner,--a reservist, I surmised,
recalled to the Italian colors in this hour of his country's
need,--rather harrowed my feelings by coming on board with a family
party, gray-haired father, anxious mother, slim bride-like wife, and two
brothers or cousins, all making pathetic pretense at good cheer. Soon
after came a third man, dark, quiet, watchful-looking, and personable
enough, although his shoes were a little too gleamingly polished, his
watch and chain a little too luminously golden, the color scheme of his
hose and tie selected with almost too much care.
"This," I reflected resignedly, "is going to be a ghastly trip. By Jove,
here comes another! Now where have I seen her before?"
The new arrival, as indicated by the pronoun, was a woman; though why
one should tempt Providence by traveling on this route at this juncture,
I found it hard to guess. Standing with her back to me, enveloped in a
coat of sealskin with a broad collar of darker fur, well gloved, smartly
shod, crowned by a fur hat with a gold cockade, she made a delightful
picture as she rummaged in a bag which reposed upon a steamer-chair, and
which, thus opened, revealed a profusion of gold mountings, bottles and
brushes, hand-chased and initialed in an opulent way.
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