rasund, and Trebizond, and round by
the Crimea. There are wonderful towns on the shores of the Black Sea
which hardly any European ever sees. I'm sure you would like them, just
as I do.'

'I am sure I should.'

'You love beautiful things, don't you?'

'Yes--though I don't pretend to be a judge.'

'I do. And when I see anything that really pleases me, I always try to
get it; and if I succeed, nothing in the world will induce me to part
with it. I'm a miser about the things I like. I keep them in safe
places, and it gives me pleasure to look at them when I'm alone.'

'That's not very generous. You might give others a little pleasure,
too, now and then.'

'So few people know what is good! Some of us Greeks have the instinct
in our blood still, and we recognise it in a few men and women we
meet--you are one, for instance. As soon as I saw you the first time, I
was quite sure that we should think alike about a great many things. Do
you mind my saying as much as that, at a second meeting?'

'Not if you think it is true,' she answered with a smile. 'Why should
I?'

'It might sound as if I were trying to make out that we have some
natural bond of sympathy,' said Logotheti. 'That's a favourite way of
opening the game, you know. "Do you like carrots? So do I"--a bond, at
once! "Do you go in, when it rains? I always do"--second bond. "We must
be sympathetic to each other! Do you smile when you are pleased? Of
course! We are exactly alike, and our hearts beat in unison!" That's
the sort of thing.'

He amused her; perhaps she was easily amused now, because she had been
feeling rather depressed all the morning. Women are subject to such
harmless self-contradictions.

'I love to be out in the rain, and I don't like carrots!' she answered.
'There are evidently things about which our hearts don't beat in unison
at all!'

'If people agreed about everything, what would become of conversation,
lawyers and standing armies? But I meant to suggest that we might
possibly like each other if we met often.'

'I daresay.'

'I have begun,' said Logotheti lightly, but again his long eyes were
grave.

'Begun what?'

'I have begun by liking you. You don't object, do you?'

'Oh no! I like to be liked--by everybody!' Margaret laughed again, and
watched him.

'It only remains for you to like everybody yourself. Will you kindly
include me?'

'Yes, in a general way, as a neighbour, in the biblical sense, you
know. Are you English