E. Phillips Oppenheim

“ I caught sight of a figure which struck me at once as being familiar, and my heart gave a sudden leap, half of astonishment, half of pleasure, for when I reached the entrance I stood face to face with Nellie.
"Lady Odell!" I exclaimed, and, with a violent start, she turned round and recognised me.
"Charlie!" and the look in her eyes, as well as her tone, fulfilled my most sanguine expectations. I was not forgotten.
"You here?" she went on in astonishment; "and carrying your own luggage, too, like a veritable Cook's tourist! Where on earth are you going to?"
"To Rome. And you?" ”

“ There isn't the least necessity for you to run away, unless you want to."
Needless to say I did not run away. We dined alone, and lingered long over the meal, and until late in the evening, full of reminiscences of our childhood and barely veiled allusions to that other period of our life, and even that parting in the old rectory garden. We lived the old days over again, and never in those times had I found Nellie Aveland so fascinating and bewitching as Lady Odell now was. ”

“ Sleep now was out of the question, so I rose, smoked another cigar, read for awhile in the grey dawn, and then made an elaborate toilet, minus the shave, and descended into the breakfast-room. As I expected, "Madame" had left by the early train, and there was a note for me. I tore it open.
"Dear Charlie,—I think, perhaps, that I had better not be seen travelling in Rome with you alone, at such an unearthly hour, so I am going on by the early train. How I envy you in the express! You will reach Rome only half an hour later. Shall see you this afternoon, I suppose. Yours,
'Nellie." ”