_Still young, a little past thirty, maybe, she was unusually tall and
stately of figure, and from her curious golden skin and massive black
hair, one judged her to be a Creole, possibly a Jamaican. Her face,
which was rather heavily but finely moulded, wore an expression of
somewhat poetic melancholy, a little like that of a beautiful animal,
but readily lit up with a charming smile now and again at some sally of
her companion, with whom she seemed to be on affectionate terms, and
with whom, as the play proceeded, she exchanged glances and whispered
confidences such as two who have shared an experience together--which
the play seems to bring to mind--are seen sometimes to exchange in a
theatre._

_But there was one particular which especially accentuated the
singularity of her appearance and was responsible for drawing upon her
an interested observation--seemed, indeed, even in her eyes to condone
it, for she, as well as her companion, was obviously conscious of
it--the two strange-looking gold ornaments which hung from her
delicately shaped ears. These continually challenged the eye, and piqued
the curiosity. Obviously they were two old coins, of thick gold, stamped
with an antique design. They were Spanish doubloons!_

_As, in common with the rest of the audience, I looked at this
picturesque pair, my eyes forsook the lady of the doubloons, and
fastened themselves with a half-certainty of recognition upon her
companion. Why! surely it was ---- ----, an old dare-devil comrade of
mine, whose disappearance from New York some ten years before had been
the talk of the two or three clubs to which we both belonged. A curious
blending of soldier, poet, and mining engineer, he had been popular with
all of us, and when he had disappeared without warning we were sure that
he was off on some Knight-errant business--to Mexico or the Moon!_

_He was, indeed, wearing that disguise of Time, which we all come
involuntarily to wear--an unfamiliar greyness of his hair at the
temples, and a moustache that would soon be a distinguished white; yet
the disguise was not sufficient to conceal the youthful vigour of his
personality from one who had known him so well as I. The more I looked
at him, the more certain I grew that it was he, and I determined to go
round to his box at the conclusion of the second act._

_Then, becoming absorbed in the play, I forgot him and his companion of
the doubloons for a while, and when I looked for the