“That’s just what I said some months ago!”
“Yes, I know. I have been thinking how strangely alike our love affairs have been. It is my turn now. I have found her!”
“What, this young lady, Laura Treherne?”
“Yes,” said Leonard, with a long breath.
“Tell me all about it,” said Jack. “Hold hard a minute, till I get something to drink. Now, fire away.”
“Well,” said Leonard, still pacing up and down, and seeming scarcely conscious of Jack’s presence, “I was walking in the park. You know the place, that quiet walk under the beeches. I was thinking of you and your love affairs, when I saw, sitting under a tree, a figure that I knew at once. For a moment I could not move, and scarcely think; then I wondered how I should get to speak to her; but presently, when I had pulled myself together, I saw that she had dropped her handkerchief, and I went and picked it up and took it to her.”
“A fine opening,” muttered Jack.
Leonard Dagle evidently did not hear him.
“Well, she started when I approached her, and merely thanked me with a bow, but I was determined not to let her go this time, and I said, ‘Pardon me, but we have met before.’ ‘Where?’ said she. ‘In a railway carriage,’ I said, and she looked at me, and trembled. ‘I remember,’ she said, and I swear I saw her shudder. ‘Since then,’ I said, ‘I have sought you far and near.’ ‘Why should you do that?’ she asked.”
“A very natural question,” interjected Jack.