.

A hundred francs at first, it came down to eighty on invoking the name
of Dainopoulos, so Mr. Spokesly took it with him and promised to call
next day.

There was something dashing about a finish like that, he reflected, as
he sat down on the bed in a room in the Olympos Hotel. A word to the
paymaster had secured him that privilege. He regretted he had not noted
more particularly the sporting Jack Harrowby, but it did not do to have
much traffic with those fellows, they were so cheeky. He untied his
parcel and looked again at the late Harrowby's selection in suitings. He
had bought a hat on the way down, too, a gray felt, respectably stylish.
Now he would be able to resume his place in the world. He would not feel
like a fireman out of a job when he went to see these naval gentry. As
he folded up his wrinkled and salt-stained trousers he remembered the
ring and took it out. That was a rather peculiar turn, the way he
happened to have it. Just a fluke, putting it in his pocket in his
hurry. Mr. Spokesly took his lip in his teeth as he tried to get the
hang, as he called it, of all these intricate turns in his destiny. He
recalled the unusual and puzzling exaltation he had experienced that
evening when he went ashore with Archy, and he began to wonder whether
after all it would be good for a man to know too accurately what the
future held for him. His hands, so to speak, were full now. Life was
tremendously interesting, once one got away from routine and discipline
and all these conventional ideas. He was, practically, a free agent now.
It was up to himself to go ahead carefully and make no silly mistakes.
No harm in walking round to that post-card shop near the Ottoman Bank,
however. He remembered seeing Jack Harrowby hanging over the counter
once, as he went by. A dark little piece with a powdered nose.

Mr. Spokesly could not have explained this ridiculous curiosity about a
girl he did not know, but it was a simple enough by-product of his new
state of mind. There is nothing unusual in a man, suddenly awakened to
full consciousness by some one woman, becoming interested in all women.
So far from a man being unable to love more than one woman, it may be
doubted whether at first he can do anything else. The tender solicitudes
and almost religious exclusiveness are later phases of the passion. Mr.
Spokesly even looked forward to a sentimental intimacy with Mrs.
Dainopoulos. It made him feel a bit of a dog, as did this