“I am glad to meet you, Mr. Donnington.”
“I consider myself equally fortunate, Major Sampayo.”
I saw then that he had an uneasy feeling that we had met somewhere before, and his eyes moved from side to side as he searched his memory to place my voice or face or name.
“Is that really Mr. Donnington?” exclaimed his companion, with a delightful assumption of interested surprise. “My dear Miralda, please don’t leave me out.”
“My friend the Contesse Inez Inglesia,” said Miralda.
She held out her hand and as I took it she looked straight into my eyes with a most cordial smile. “I have heard so much about you, Mr. Donnington, that I have been questioning every one I know to find a mutual friend, and wandering all over the rooms to find you.”
Which meant that she knew I had been a long time with Miralda.
“I have such an implicit faith in Portuguese sincerity, contesse, that you will turn my head if you flatter me so. The fact is I have been making an unconscionable bore of myself with Mademoiselle Dominguez. I met her and the viscontesse in Paris last spring, and I was so glad to find a face I knew to-night, that I could not resist the temptation for a chat.”
“Have you been long in Lisbon, sir?” asked Sampayo, still worrying himself about me.
“Two days, major, that’s all. I came in my yacht.”