‘There are some dark also,’ he replied.
‘But the best-looking are fair?’
‘Perhaps they are, with us.’
‘Mother was fair.’
‘She was.’
‘I have only seen a few of them, once at Vies and at Venice, and those Baths we are going to; and at Meran, I think.’
‘You considered them charming?’
‘Not all.’
It was touching that she should be such a stranger to her countrywomen! He drew a portrait-case from his breast-pocket, pressing the spring, and handed it to her, saying: ‘There is one.’ He spoke indifferently, but as soon as she had seen the face inside it, with a look at him and a deep breath; she understood that he was an altered brother, and that they were three instead of two.
She handed it back to him, saying hushedly and only ‘Yes.’