“And were you surprised, Lilly, to find your friend here?” asked Del Torre.
“I ought to have been. But I wasn't really.”
“Then you expected him?”
“No. It came naturally, though.—But why did you come, Aaron? What exactly brought you?”
“Accident,” said Aaron.
“Ah, no! No! There is no such thing as accident,” said the Italian. “A man is drawn by his fate, where he goes.”
“You are right,” said Argyle, who came now with the teapot. “A man is drawn—or driven. Driven, I've found it. Ah, my dear fellow, what is life but a search for a friend? A search for a friend—that sums it up.”
“Or a lover,” said the Marchese, grinning.
“Same thing. Same thing. My hair is white—but that is the sum of my whole experience. The search for a friend.” There was something at once real and sentimental in Argyle's tone.
“And never finding?” said Lilly, laughing.