“It is the first time that _I_ have seen it like this--coming toward it, I mean, from somewhere else,” she remarked at last. “I had never been outside England before.”
He did not seem to hear her. With another lingering, clinging gaze at the white speck, he shook himself a little, and turned. “And now I want to tell you about this new, wonderful thing--about why I am this minute within sight of England. You will say it is very strange.”
They moved to their bench again, and he spread the wraps once more, but this time they did not sit quite so close together. It was as if the mere sight of that pale, respectable slip of land on the horizon had in some subtle way affected their relation to each other.
“A week ago,” he began afresh, “at Nice, a messenger from the Crédit Lyonnais brought me a note saying they wished to see me at the bank. They had, it seems, searched for me in several towns along the Riviera, because I had been moving about. It was demanded that I should prove my identity by witnesses, and when that was done I was given a sum of money, and a sealed letter addressed to me, bearing simply my name, Mr. Christian Tower--nothing more. I hurried outside and read its contents. I was requested to get together all my papers--”
He stopped short, arrested by a sharp, half-stifled exclamation from her lips. She had continued looking at him after his mention of his name--at first absent-mindedly, as if something in his talk had sent her thoughts unconsciously astray; then with lifted head, and brows bent together in evident concentration upon some new phase of what he had been saying. Now she interrupted him with visible excitement.
“You say Christian Tower!” She pushed the words at him hurriedly. “What was your father’s name?”
“He was always known as Captain Tower, but I have read it in my papers--his first name was Ambrose.”
She had risen to her feet, in evident agitation, and now strode across to the rail. As he essayed to follow her, she turned, and forced the shadow of a smile into her lips; her eyes remained frightened. “It is all right,” she said with a gasping attempt at reassurance. “I was queer for just an instant; it’s all right. Go on, please. You were to get together your papers--”