He reverted to it suddenly as we sat again in the hop-vine arbour , looking at the glimmering radiance of the September sea . `` Master , how many of us are sitting here ? '' `` Two in the flesh . How many in the spirit I know not , '' I answered , humouring his mood . `` There is one -- the other of the two I spoke of the day I told you about Alice . It 's harder for me to speak of this one . '' `` Do n't speak of it if it hurts you , '' I said . `` But I want to . It 's a whim of mine . Do you know why I told you of Alice and why I 'm going to tell you of Mercedes ? It 's because I want someone to remember them and think of them sometimes after I 'm gone . I ca n't bear that their names should be utterly forgotten by all living souls . `` My older brother , Alec , was a sailor , and on his last voyage to the West Indies he married and brought home a Spanish girl . My father and mother did n't like the match . Mercedes was a foreigner and a Catholic , and differed from us in every way . But I never blamed Alec after I saw her . It was n't that she was so very pretty . She was slight and dark and ivory-coloured . But she was very graceful , and there was a charm about her , master -- a mighty and potent charm . The women could n't understand it .
They wondered at Alec 's infatuation XXXXX her .
after as at by for from if in that to