"Do you wonder why I smile?" she added, as if able to read my thoughts.
"It is because I have often heard words like yours from one who is
waiting for me now."

This speech caused me a jealous pang. But for a few moments after
speaking, she continued regarding me with that bright, spiritual smile
on her lips; then it faded, and her face clouded and her glance fell. I
did not ask her to tell me, nor did I ask myself, the reason of that
change; and afterwards how often I noticed that same change in her, and
in the others too--that sudden silence and clouding of the face, such as
may be seen in one who freely expresses himself to a person who cannot
hear, and then, all at once but too late, remembers the other's
infirmity.

"Must you go?" I only said. "What shall I do alone?".

"Oh, you shall not be alone," she replied, and going away returned
presently with another lady. "This is Edra," she said simply. "She will
take my place by your side and talk with you."

I could not tell her that she had taken my words too literally, that
being alone simply meant being separated from her; but there was no help
for it, and some one, alas! some one I greatly hated was waiting for
her. I could only thank her and her friend for their kind intentions.
But what in the name of goodness was I to say to this beautiful woman
who was sitting by me? She was certainly very beautiful, with a far more
mature and perhaps a nobler beauty than Yoletta's, her age being about
twenty-seven or twenty-eight; but the divine charm in the young girl's
face could, for me, exist in no other.