Gianapolis was a man capable of the uttermost sacrifices upon either of two shrines; that of Mammon, or that of Eros.  His was a temperament (truly characteristic of his race) which can build up a structure painfully, year by year, suffering unutterable privations in the cause of its growth, only to shatter it at a blow for a woman’s smile.  He was a true member of that brotherhood, represented throughout the bazaars of the East, of those singular shopkeepers who live by commercial rapine, who, demanding a hundred piastres for an embroidered shawl from a plain woman, will exchange it with a pretty one for a perfumed handkerchief.  Externally of London, he was internally of the Levant.

His vigil lasted but a quarter of an hour.  At twenty-five minutes to eleven, Helen Cumberly came running down the steps of the hotel and hurried toward the Strand.  Like a shadow, Gianapolis, throwing away a half-smoked cigarette, glided around the corner, paused and so timed his return that he literally ran into the girl as she entered the main thoroughfare.

He started back.

“Why!” he cried, “Miss Cumberly!”

Helen checked a frown, and hastily substituted a smile.

“How odd that I should meet you here, Mr. Gianapolis,” she said.

“Most extraordinary!  I was on my way to visit a friend in Victoria Street upon a rather urgent matter.  May I venture to hope that your path lies in a similar direction?”

Helen Cumberly, deceived by his suave manner (for how was she to know that the Greek had learnt her address from Crockett, the reporter?), found herself at a loss for an excuse.  Her remarkably pretty mouth was drawn down to one corner, inducing a dimple of perplexity in her left cheek.  She had that breadth between the eyes which, whilst not an attribute of perfect beauty, indicates an active mind, and is often found in Scotch women; now, by the slight raising of her eyebrows, this space was accentuated.  But Helen’s rapid thinking availed her not at all.

“Had you proposed to walk?” inquired Gianapolis, bending deferentially and taking his place beside her with a confidence which showed that her opportunity for repelling his attentions was past.

“Yes,” she said, hesitatingly; “but—­I fear I am detaining you"...

Of two evils she was choosing the lesser; the idea of being confined in a cab with this ever-smiling Greek was unthinkable.

“Oh, my dear Miss Cumberly!” cried Gianapolis, beaming radiantly, “it is a greater pleasure than I can express to you, and then for two friends who are proceeding in the same direction to walk apart would be quite absurd, would it not?”

The term “friend” was not pleasing to Helen’s ears; Mr. Gianapolis went far too fast.  But she recognized her helplessness, and accepted this cavalier with as good a grace as possible.

He immediately began to talk of Olaf van Noord and his pictures, whilst Helen hurried along as though her life depended upon her speed.  Sometimes, on the pretense of piloting her at crossings, Gianapolis would take her arm; and this contact she found most disagreeable; but on the whole his conduct was respectful to the point of servility.