He swallowed something.

It must have been a curse, for it seemed to taste bitter.

But he managed to recover some shred of self-control ere the Senhora De Sylva was able to answer her father's first eager questions; then, with a charming timidity, she found breath to say: "And what of Salvador--is he not here ?" Yes, Salvador was there--by her side--striving most desperately to look lover-like.

They clasped hands.

Brazilian etiquette forbade a more demonstrative greeting, and Carmela attributed Salvador's manifest sallowness to the hardships of campaigning no less than the shock of her sudden appearance.
But the business of red war gave little scope for the many confidences that a girl who had journeyed more than four thousand miles for this reunion might naturally exchange with a father and a lover.