"Mr. Hillyard, I have seen you before, somewhere and not in England."
"That is possible."
"In Spain?"
"Yes," answered Hillyard.
A certain curiosity in Escobar's voice, a certain reticence in Hillyard's, arrested the attention of those about.
"Let me see!" continued Escobar. "It was in the Opera House at Barcelona on the first performance of Manon Lescaut."
"No," replied Hillyard.
"Then—I know—it was under the palm-trees in front of the sea at Alicante one night."
Hillyard nodded.
"That may well have been. I was up and down the south coast of Spain for three years. Eighteen months of it were spent at Alicante."