"No! no!" cry I, with tremulous impatience, "of course not; but I asked her whether she used not to know him in India, and she said, 'Yes, we met several times,' just like _that_--she no more blushed and looked confused than _I_ should if any one asked me whether I knew you!" He is still leaning over the punt, and has begun to dabble as I did. "You certainly have a way of putting things very strongly," he says in a rather low voice, "_convincingly_ so!" "She did not even know what part of the world he was in!" I cry, triumphantly. "Did she say so?" (lifting up his face, and speaking quickly). "Well, no--o--" I answer, reluctantly; "but I said, 'He is in the West Indies,' and she answered 'Yes,' or 'Indeed,' or 'Is he?' I forget which, but at any rate it implied that it was news to her." A pike leaps not far from us, and splashes back again. I watch to see whether the widening faint circles will have strength to reach us, or whether the water's smile will be smoothed and straightened before it gets to us. "Did Mrs. Huntley happen to say" (leaning lazily back, and speaking carelessly), "how she liked her house?" "No; why?" "She has only just got into it," he answers, slightly; "only about a fortnight, that is." "I wonder," say I, ruminatingly, "what brought her to this part of the world, for she does not seem to know anybody." He does not answer. "We _ought_ to be friends, ought not we?" say I, beginning to laugh nervously, and looking appealingly toward him, "both of us coming to sojourn in a strange land! It is a curious coincidence our both settling here in such similar circumstances, at almost the same time, is not it?" Still he is silent. "_Is not it?_" cry I, irritably, raising my voice. Again he has thrown his head back, and is perusing the sky, his hands clasped round one lifted knee. "What _is_ a coincidence?" he says, languidly. "I do not think I quite know--I am never good at long words--two things that happen accidentally at the same time, is not it?" He lays the faintest possible stress on the word accidentally. "And you mean to say that this in not accidental?" I cry, quickly. "I mean nothing; I only ask for information."