Natalia did not answer for a moment. "Perhaps you do not understand, Morgan, or perhaps the old characteristics of my childhood are coming back to me. Do you know, they used to call me 'peculiar'? I wasn't like other children."
"I know—you were so much more beautiful."
"That reminds me," Natalia laughed, with a sudden change of mood, "of how dreadfully afraid I was that I would not be good-looking when I grew up. There was only one person who really comforted me about it, and he always insisted that my claim to a goodly appearance would not disappear with age."
"That was a man who knew the standards of beauty. I should like to meet him. What was his name?"
"You will laugh when I tell you. It was Sargent Everett."
"Dear old Sargent!" Talbot exclaimed, his face lighting up with pleasure. "I wonder if he got my letter. The Captain on the boat is a great friend of Sargent's. He told me a great deal about him, but he said he was not here now. Wouldn't it be unfortunate if he were not at our wedding? Did you ask any one if he would be here?"
"No—I didn't ask," Natalia answered slowly. "It's very odd—I haven't thought of him for a long time; not since you said you were going to write him about our wedding. Did you receive an answer?"
"No—I did not have time. I didn't expect one until I saw him here."
"I wonder if he has forgotten me," Natalia murmured, sinking on the bench near the gate, and motioning Talbot to the seat beside her. "Let's sit down here for a while. You don't mind my dreaming aloud to you, do you?"
His arm slipped about her until her head rested against his shoulder, and her eyes closed for a moment as if she had suddenly grown weary.