Farewell, Nikola | Page 3

act of
walking towards us. I looked at him, looked away, and then looked
again. No! there was no room for doubt; the likeness was unmistakable.
I should-have known him anywhere. He was Doctor Nikola; the man
who had played such an important part in our life's drama. Five years
had elapsed since I had last seen him, but in that time he was scarcely
changed at all. It was the same tall, thin figure; the same sallow,
cleanshaven face; the same piercing black eyes. As he drew nearer I
noticed that his hair was a little more grey, that he looked slightly older;
otherwise he was unchanged. But why was he coming to us? Surely he
did not mean to speak to us? After the manner in which he had treated
us in bygone days I scarcely knew how to receive him. He, on his side,
however, was quite self-possessed. Raising his hat with that easy grace
that always distinguished him, he advanced and held out his hand
to-my wife.
"My dear Lady Hatteras," he began in his most conciliatory tone, "I felt
sure you would recognise me. Observing that you had not forgotten me,
I took the liberty of coming to pay my respects to you."
Then before my wife could reply he had turned to me and was holding

out his hand. For a moment I had half determined not to take it, but
when his glittering eyes looked into mine I changed my mind and
shook hands with him more cordially than I should ever have thought it
possible for me to do. Having thus broken the ice, and as we had to all
intents and purposes permitted him to derive the impression that we
were prepared to forgive the past, nothing remained for us but to
introduce him to Miss Trevor. From the moment that he had
approached us she had been watching him covertly, and that he had
produced a decided impression upon her was easily seen. For the first
time since we had known her she, usually so staid and
unimpressionable, was nervous and ill at ease. The introduction
effected she drew back a little, and pretended to be absorbed in
watching a party of our fellow-countrymen who had taken their places
at a table a short distance from us. For my part I do not mind
confessing that I was by no means comfortable. I remembered my bitter
hatred of Nikola in days gone by. I recalled that terrible house in Port
Said, and thought of the night on the island when I had rescued my
wife from his clutches. In my estimation then he had been a villain of
the deepest dye, and yet here he was sitting beside me as calm and
collected, and apparently as interested in the resume of our travels in
Italy that my wife was giving him, as if we had been bosom friends
throughout our lives. In any one else it would have been a piece of
marvellous effrontery; in Nikola's case, however, it did not strike one in
the same light. As I have so often remarked, he seemed incapable of
acting like any other human being. His extraordinary personality lent a
glamour to his simplest actions, and demanded for them an attention
they would scarcely have received had he been less endowed.
"Have you been long in Venice?" my wife inquired when she had
completed the record of our doings, feeling that she must say
something.
"I seldom remain anywhere for very long," he answered, with one of
his curious smiles. "I come and go like a Will-o'-the-wisp; I am here
to-day and gone to-morrow."
It may have been an unfortunate remark, but I could not help uttering it.

"For instance, you are in London to-day," I said, "in Port Said next
week, and in the South Sea Islands a couple of months later."
He was not in the least disconcerted.
"Ah! I see you have not forgotten our South Sea adventure," he replied
cheerfully. "How long ago it seems, does it not? To me it is like a
chapter out of another life." Then, turning to Miss Trevor, who of
course had heard the story of our dealings with him sufficiently often to
be weary of it, he added, "I hope you are not altogether disposed to
think ill of me. Perhaps some day you will be able to persuade Lady
Hatteras to forgive me, that is to say if she has not already done so. Yet
I do not know why I should plead for pardon, seeing that I am far from
being in a repentant mood. As a matter of fact I am very much afraid
that should the necessity arise, I should be compelled to act as I did
then."
"Then