’I would rather that the Nike of Samothrace should think dreadful things of me than that she should not think of me at all!’

‘Do I still remind you of her?’ asked Margaret.

’Yes.  I used to be quite satisfied with my Venus, but now I want the Victory from the Louvre.  It’s not a mere resemblance.  She is you, and as she has no face I see yours when I look at her.  The other day I stood so long on the landing where she is, that a watchman took me for an anarchist waiting to deposit a bomb, and he called a policeman, who asked me my name and occupation.  I was very near being arrested—­on your account again!  You are destined to turn the heads of men of business!’

At this point Margaret became aware that she and Logotheti were talking in undertones, while the conversation at the table had become general, and she reluctantly gave up the idea of again asking where he had got his information about her interview with Mr. Van Torp in New York.  The dinner came to an end before long, and the men went out with the ladies, and began to smoke in the drawing-room, standing round the coffee.

Lady Maud put her arm through Margaret’s.

‘Cigarettes are bad for your throat, I’m sure,’ she said, ’and I hate them.’

She led the Primadonna away through a curtained door to a small room furnished according to Eastern ideas of comfort, and she sat down on a low, hard divan, which was covered with a silk carpet.  The walls were hung with Persian silks, and displayed three or four texts from the Koran, beautifully written in gold on a green ground.  Two small inlaid tables stood near the divan, one at each end, and two deep English easy-chairs, covered with red leather, were placed symmetrically beside them.  There was no other furniture, and there were no gimcracks about, such as Europeans think necessary in an ‘oriental’ room.

With her plain black velvet, Lady Maud looked handsomer than ever in the severely simple surroundings.

‘Do you mind?’ she asked, as Margaret sat down beside her.  ’I’m afraid I carried you off rather unceremoniously!’

‘No,’ Margaret answered.  ’I’m glad to be quiet, it’s so long since I was at a dinner-party.’

‘I’ve always hoped to meet you,’ said Lady Maud, ’but you’re quite different from what I expected.  I did not know you were really so young—­ever so much younger than I am.’

‘Really?’

‘Oh, yes!  I’m seven-and-twenty, and I’ve been married four years.’

‘I’m twenty-four,’ said Margaret, ‘and I’m not married yet.’

She was aware that the clear eyes were studying her face, but she did not resent their scrutiny.  There was something about her companion that inspired her with trust at first sight, and she did not even remember the impossible story Logotheti had told her.

’I suppose you are tormented by all sorts of people who ask things, aren’t you?’

Margaret wondered whether the beauty was going to ask her to sing for nothing at a charity concert.