On the way to the dining-room, he met the man.  The scars were a little deeper in color and the face was thinner, but there was no shadow of doubt in Fitzgerald’s mind.

“Breitmann?” he said, with a friendly hand.

The other stood still.  There was no recognition in his eyes; at least, Fitzgerald saw none.

“Breitmann is my name, sir,” he replied courteously.

“I am Fitzgerald; don’t you remember me?  We dined in Paris last year, after we had spent the afternoon with the Napoleonic relics.  You haven’t forgotten Macedonia?”

Breitmann took the speaker by the arm, and turned him round.  Fitzgerald had been standing with his back to the light.  The scrutiny was short.  The eyes of the Bavarian softened, though the quizzical wrinkles at the corners remained unchanged.  All at once his whole expression warmed.

“It is you?  And what do you here?” extending both hands.

Some doubt lingered in Fitzgerald’s mind; yet the welcome was perfect, from whichever point he chose to look.  “Come in to breakfast,” he said, “and I’ll tell you.”

“My table is here; sit by the window.  Who was it said that the world is small?  Do you know, that dinner in Paris was the first decent meal I had had in a week?  And I didn’t recognize you at once! Herr Gott!” with sudden weariness.  “Perhaps I have had reason to forget many things.  But you?”

Fitzgerald spread his napkin over his knees.  There was only one other man breakfasting.  He was a small, wiry person, white of hair, and spectacled, and was at that moment curiously employed.  He had pinned to the table a small butterfly, yellow, with tiny dots on the wings.  He was critically inspecting his find through a jeweler’s glass.

“I am visiting friends here,” began Fitzgerald.  “Rear Admiral Killigrew was an old friend of my father’s.  I did not expect to remain, but the admiral and his daughter insisted; so I am sending to New York for my luggage, and will go up this morning.”  He saw no reason for giving fuller details.

“So it must have been you who brought the admiral’s note.  It is fate.  Thanks.  Some day that casual dinner may give you good interest”

The little man with the butterfly bent lower over his prize.

“Do you believe in curses?” asked Breitmann.

“Ordinary, every-day curses, yes; but not in Roman anathemas.”

“Neither of those.  I mean the curse that sometimes dogs a man, day and night; the curse of misfortune.  I was hungry that night in Paris; I have been hungry many times since, I have held honorable places; to-day, I become a servant at seventy-five dollars a month and my bread and butter.  A private secretary.”

“But why aren’t you with some newspaper?” asked Fitzgerald, breaking his eggs.

Breitmann drew up his shoulders.  “For the same reason that I am renting my brains as a private secretary.  It was the last thing I could find, and still retain a little self-respect.  My heart was dead when the admiral told me he had already engaged a secretary.  But your note brought me the position.”