My congratulations!" It was an interruption of peculiar and wonderful significance, but Francis did not for the moment appreciate the fact.

Turning his head, he simply saw a complete stranger seated unaccountably at the next table, who had butted into a private conversation and whose tone of gentle sarcasm, therefore, was the more offensive.
"Who the devil are you, sir," he demanded, "and where did you come from ?" The newcomer showed no resentment at Francis' little outburst.

He simply smiled with deprecating amiability--a tall, spare man, with lean, hard face, complexion almost unnaturally white; black hair, plentifully besprinkled with grey; a thin, cynical mouth, notwithstanding its distinctly humourous curve, and keen, almost brilliant dark eyes.

He was dressed in ordinary dinner garb; his linen and jewellery was indeed in the best possible taste.

Francis, at his second glance, was troubled with a vague sense of familiarity.
"Let me answer your last question first, sir," the intruder begged.