"
V
At this moment the lady who had hailed me so gayly from the top of the
coach while I stood waiting for the Altrurian to help the porter with the
baggage, just after the arrival of the train, came up with her husband to
our little group and said to me: "I want to introduce my husband to you.
He adores your books." She went on much longer to this effect, while the
other men grinned round and her husband tried to look as if it were all
true, and her eyes wandered to the Altrurian, who listened gravely. I knew
perfectly well that she was using her husband's zeal for my fiction to
make me present my friend; but I did not mind that, and I introduced him
to both of them. She took possession of him at once and began walking him
off down the piazza, while her husband remained with me, and the members
of our late conference drifted apart. I was not sorry to have it broken up
for the present; it seemed to me that it had lasted quite long enough, and
I lighted a cigar with the husband, and we strolled together in the
direction his wife had taken.
He began, apparently in compliment to literature in my person: "Yes, I
like to have a book where I can get at it when we're not going out to the
theatre, and I want to quiet my mind down after business.
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