the city on opposite sides of the Seine. Hitherto Logotheti had
always taken the one that leads to the right bank, along the Avenue de
Versailles to the Porte St. Cloud. Another follows the left bank by Bas
Meudon, but the most pleasant road goes through the woods Fausses
Reposes.

One morning, when he knew that there was to be a rehearsal, Lushington
bicycled out by the usual way without meeting the motor car. It
naturally occurred to him that Logotheti must have returned by another
road. Whether he would bring Margaret out again by the same way or not,
was of course uncertain, but Lushington resolved to try the Fausses
Reposes on the chance of meeting the car, after waiting in Versailles
as long as he thought the rehearsal might last.

He set out again about half-past one. The road is in parts much more
lonely than the others, especially in the woods, and is much less
straight; there are sharp turns to the right and left in several
places. Lushington did not know the road very well and hesitated more
than once, going slowly and fast by turns, and at the end of
half-an-hour he felt almost sure that he had either lost his way or
that Logotheti was coming back by another route.

CHAPTER XV

Margaret knew by this time that Logotheti was really very much in love;
she was equally sure that she was not, and that when she encouraged him
she was yielding to a rather complicated temptation that presented
elements of amusement and of mild danger. In plain English, she was
playing with the man, though she guessed that he was not the kind of
man who would allow himself to be played with very long.

There are not many young women who could resist such a temptation under
the circumstances, and small blame to them. Margaret had done nothing
to attract the Greek and was too unsophisticated to understand the
nature of her involuntary influence over him. He was still young, he
was unlike other men and he was enormously rich; a little familiarity
with him had taught her that there was nothing vulgar about him below
the surface, and he treated her with all the respect she could exact
when she chose to put herself in his power. The consequence was that as
she felt nothing herself she sometimes could not resist making little
experiments, just to see how far he would run on the chain by which she
held him. Besides, she was flattered by his devotion.

It was not a noble game that she was playing with him, but in real life
very