'May I ask what she said? I know her so well that I can perhaps be of

use to you. Sometimes, for instance, she says nothing at all. That

means that there may be a chance of success but that she herself is not

sure.' 'She kissed me on both cheeks,' Margaret said with a laugh, 'and she

talked about my début.' 'Then I should advise you to make your début at once,' Logotheti

answered. 'She means that you will have a very great success.' 'Do you really think so?' asked Margaret, much pleased.

'I know it,' he replied with conviction. 'That woman is utterly

incapable of saying anything she does not think, but she sometimes

gives her opinion with horrible brutality.' 'I rather like that.' 'Do you?' 'Yes. It is good medicine.' 'Then you have only been a spectator, and never the patient!' Logotheti

laughed.

'Perhaps. Tell me all about Madame Bonanni.' 'All about her?' Logotheti smiled oddly. 'Well, she is a great artist,

perhaps the greatest living soprano, though she is getting old. You can

see that. Let me see, what else? She is very frank, I have told you

that. And she is charitable. She gives away a great deal. She has a

great many friends, of whom I call myself one, and we are all sincerely

attached to her. I cannot think of anything else to tell you about

her.' 'She said she was born a peasant,' observed Margaret who wished to hear

more.

'Oh yes!' Logotheti laughed. 'There is no doubt of that! Besides, she

is proud of it.' 'She was married at seventeen, too.' 'They all marry,' answered Logotheti vaguely, 'and their husbands

disappear, by some law of nature we do not understand--absorbed into

the elements, evaporated, drawn up into the clouds like moisture. One

might write an interesting essay on the husbands of prima donnas and

great actresses. What becomes of them? We know whence they come, for

they are often impecunious gentlemen, but where do they go? There must

be a limbo for them, somewhere, a place of departed husbands. Possibly

they are all in lunatic asylums. The greater the singer, or the

actress, the more certain it is that she has been married and that her

husband has disappeared! It is very mysterious.' 'Very!' Margaret was rather amused by his talk.

'Have you lived long in Paris?' he asked, suddenly changing the

subject.

'We live in Versailles. I come in for my lessons.' Without asking many direct questions Logotheti managed to find out a

good deal about Margaret during the next quarter of an hour. She was

not suspicious of a man who showed no inclination to be familiar or to

make blatant compliments to her, and she told him that her father and

mother were dead and that she lived with Mrs. Rushmore and saw many

interesting people, most of whom he seemed to know. He, on his part,

told her many things about Versailles which she did not know, and she

soon saw that he was a man of varied tastes and wide information. She

wondered why he wore such a big turquoise ring and why he had such a

wonderful waistcoat, such a superlative tie, such an amazing shirt and

such a frightfully expensive pin. But it was not the first time in her

life that she had met an otherwise intelligent man who made the mistake

of over-dressing, and her first prejudice against him began to

disappear. She even admitted to herself that he had a certain charm of

manner which she liked, a mingling of reserve and frankness, or repose

and strength, the qualities which appeal so strongly to most women. If

only his voice had not that disagreeable oiliness! After all, that was

what she liked least. He spoke French with wonderful fluency, but he

abstained from making the tiresome compliments which so many Frenchmen

reel off even at first acquaintance. He had really beautiful

almond-shaped eyes, but he never once turned them to her with that

languishing look which young men with almond eyes seem to think quite

irresistible. Surely, all this was in his favour.




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