I have always found the greatest men the simplest and most frank.
Therefore I know you will tell me--you will satisfy any doubt I may feel--If I should ask a question, you would not condemn me as presuming ?" "Certainly not.

Upon the contrary, my dear Countess, I should feel flattered." She looked at him for an instant, then came up to the side of the table beyond which he had taken his seat.

Leaning her chin upon her hand, her elbow upon the table, in a sudden posture of encounter, she asked him a question whose answer took him swiftly far back into his own past, into another and forgotten day.
"Did you ever hear of Mr.John Parish, Sir ?" she demanded.
The suave countenance before her was at first blank, then curious, then intent.

His mind was striving to summon up, from all its many images, this one which was required.

It was a brain which rarely forgot, even though years had passed; and had it been able to forget, so much had been the better for the plans of the gentleman from Kentucky, and for the success of his proposed European mission.
At last, slowly, a faint flush passed over the face she was regarding so intently.