Interrogation, now it had come, was most satisfactory, and Bernard was glad to believe that there was an element of the unexpected in his answer.
“From California.”
“You came straight from California to this place?”
“I arrived at Havre only yesterday.”
“And why did you come here?”
“It would be graceful of me to be able to answer—‘Because I knew you were here.’ But unfortunately I did not know it. It was a mere chance; or rather, I feel like saying it was an inspiration.”
Angela looked at the geraniums again.
“It was very singular,” she said. “We might have been in so many places besides this one. And you might have come to so many places besides this one.”
“It is all the more singular, that one of the last persons I saw in America was your charming friend Blanche, who married Gordon Wright. She did n’t tell me you were here.”
“She had no reason to know it,” said the girl. “She is not my friend—as you are her husband’s friend.”