'There goes a typical French bookworm, bicycling to get an appetite,'
he observed. 'I wonder why a certain type of Frenchman always wears kid
boots with square patent leather toes, and a Lavallière tie, and
spectacles with tortoise-shell rims!' 'If he could see you as you generally are,' answered Margaret, 'he
would probably wonder why a certain type of foreigner plasters his hair
down and covers himself with diamonds and rubies! Do go a little
faster, it's getting later every moment.' 'It always does.' 'Especially when one doesn't wish it to! Please go on!' 'Say at once that I've bored you to death.' He put the car at
half-speed.
'No. You don't bore me at all, but I want to get to the theatre.' 'To please you, I am going there--for no other reason. I'll do anything
in the world to give you pleasure. I only wish you would do the
smallest thing for me!' 'What, for instance? Perhaps I may do some very little thing. You'll
get nothing if you don't ask for it!' 'Some people take without asking. Greek pirates always do, you know!
But I can't drive at this rate and talk over my shoulder.' The way was clear and for several minutes he ran at full speed, keeping
his eyes on the road. Margaret turned sideways and kept behind him as
much as possible, shielding her face and mouth from the tremendous
draught.
She had told the truth when she had said that he did not bore her. The
whole thing had a savour of adventure in it, and it amused her to think
how shocked Mrs. Rushmore would have been if she had guessed that the
chauffeur was Logotheti himself. There was something in the man's
coolness that attracted her very much, for though there was no danger
on the present occasion, she felt that if there had been any, he would
have been just as indifferent to it if it stood in the way of his
seeing her alone. Poor Lushington had always been so intensely proper,
so morbidly afraid of compromising her, and above all, so deadly in
earnest!
She did not quite like to admit that the Greek was altogether in
earnest, too, and that she was just a little afraid of him; still less
that her unacknowledged fear gave her rather a pleasant sensation. But
it was quite true that she had liked him better than before, from the
moment when he had pulled off his cap and glasses and shown his face as
nature had made it. However he might appear hereafter when she met him,
she would always think of him as she had seen him then.