and
politics may be avoided by a graceful reference to the Patrie, for which
Republican and Legitimist are alike prepared to die. But the Spaniard may
be an Aragonese or a Valencian, an Andalusian or a Guipuzcoan, and
patriotism is a flower of purely local growth and colour.

Thus men, meeting in public places have learnt to do so in silence; and a
table d'hote is a wordless function unless the inevitable Andalusian--he
who takes the place of the Gascon in France--is present with his babble
and his laugh, his fine opinion of himself, and his faculty for making a
sacrifice of his own dignity at that over-rated altar--the shrine of
sociability.

There was no Andalusian at this small table to serve at once as a link of
sympathy between the quiet men, who would fain silence him, and a means
of making unsociable persons acquainted with each other. The five men
were thus permitted to dine in a silence befitting their surroundings and
their station in life. For they were obviously gentlemen, and obviously
of a thoughtful and perhaps devout habit of mind. A keen observer who has
had the cosmopolitan education, say, of an attache, is usually able to
assign a nationality to each member of a mixed assembly; but there was a
subtle resemblance to each other in these diners, which would have made
the task a hard one. These were citizens of the world, and their likeness
lay deeper than a mere accident of dress. In fact, the most remarkable
thing about them was that they were all alike studiously unremarkable.

After the formal bow, Evasio Mon gave his attention to the fare set
before him. Once he raised his narrow gaze, and, with a smile of
recognition, acknowledged the grave and very curt nod of a man seated
opposite. A second time he met the glance of another diner, a stout,
puffy man, who breathed heavily while he ate. Both men alike averted
their eyes at once, and both looked towards a little wizened man, doubled
up in his chair, who ate sparingly, and bore on his wrinkled face and
bent form, the evidence of such a weight of care as few but kings and
ministers ever know.

So absorbed was he that after one glance at Evasio Mon he lapsed again
into his own thoughts. The very manner in which he crumbled his bread and
handled his knife and fork showed that his mind was as busy as a mill. He
was oblivious to his surroundings; had forgotten his companions. His mind
had more to occupy it than one brief lifetime could hope to compass.