Margaret felt suddenly inclined to shut herself up in her room and send word that she had a headache and could not see them.  But Schreiermeyer was there.  He would telephone for three doctors, and would refuse to leave the house till they signed an assurance that she was perfectly well and able to begin rehearsing the Elisir d’Amore the next morning.  That was what Schreiermeyer would do, and when she next met him he would tell her that he would have ’no nonsense, no stupid stuff,’ and that she had signed an engagement and must sing or pay.

She had never shammed an illness, either, and she did not mean to begin now.  It was only that for two blessed hours and more, with her dead father’s best friend and Maud, she had felt like her old self again, and had dreamt that she was with her own people.  She had even disliked the prospect of seeing Logotheti after that, and she felt a much stronger repugnance for her theatrical comrades.  She went to her own room before meeting them, and she sighed as she stood before the tall looking-glass for a moment after taking off her coat and hat.  In pulling out the hat-pins her hair had almost come down, and Alphonsine proposed to do it over again, but Margaret was impatient.

‘Give me something—­a veil, or anything,’ she said impatiently.  ’They are waiting for me.’

The maid instantly produced from a near drawer a peach-coloured veil embroidered with green and gold.  It was a rather vivid modern Turkish one given her by Logotheti, and she wrapped it quickly over her disordered hair, like a sort of turban, tucking one end in, and left the room almost without glancing at the glass again.  She was discontented with herself now for having dreamt of ever again being anything but what she was—­a professional singer.

The little party greeted her noisily as she entered the music-room.  Her comrades had not seen her since she had left them in New York, and the consequence was that Signorina Baci-Roventi kissed her on both cheeks with dramatic force, and she kissed Fraeulein Ottilie on both cheeks, and Pompeo Stromboli offered himself for a like favour and had to be fought off, while Schreiermeyer looked on gravely, very much as a keeper at the Zoo watches the gambols of the animals in his charge; but Logotheti shook hands very quietly, well perceiving that his chance of pleasing her just then lay in being profoundly respectful while the professionals were overpoweringly familiar.  His almond-shaped eyes asked her how in the world she could stand it all, and she felt uncomfortable at the thought that she was used to it.