at your service for
anything connected with the money market.'

'Thank you,' said Margaret, ambiguously, as to the tone in which the
words were spoken, but with a quick glance of approval.

He had meant his speech for Madame De Rosa, who had probably been told
that Margaret came to see him on a matter of business. But it was quite
unnecessary. The little Neapolitan woman could judge of the state of a
love affair at any moment with a certainty as unerring as that of a
great cook who can tell by a mere glance what stage of development the
finest sauce has reached. She supported Logotheti's fiction, however,
without a smile.

'Ah, my dear,' she said, 'always consult him, if he will help you!
Bonanni owes half her fortune to his judgment, and I could certainly
not live as I do if he had not given me his advice and kind
assistance.'

'You exaggerate, dear lady,' said Logotheti, opening the door for them,
and following them into the hall.

'Not in the least,' laughed Madame De Rosa, 'though I am sure that
Cordova is quite able to take care of herself and is much too proud to
owe you anything.'

She often called Margaret by her stage name, as artists do among
themselves, but it jarred disagreeably on Logotheti's ear.

'You are right in that,' he said, rather coldly, as a footman appeared
and opened the outer door. 'Miss Donne'--he emphasised the name a
little--'will probably not need any help from me. But if she should, I
am her very humble servant.'

'Thank you,' Margaret said, in the same ambiguous tone as before.

Thereupon she and Madame De Rosa nodded to him and left him bowing on
his doorstep. They walked away in the direction of the Batignolles
station. When they had heard the door of the house shut, Madame De Rosa
spoke.

'You are splendid, my dear,' she said with admiration. 'But take care!
To play with Logotheti is like balancing a volcano on the tip of your
nose while you juggle with the world, the flesh and the devil--you know
what I mean--the man who keeps a cannon-ball, an empty bottle and a bit
of paper all going at once with one hand. I am afraid Logotheti will do
something unexpected, to upset all our plans.'

'He had better not!' answered Margaret, drooping her lids; and her eyes
flashed, and her handsome lips pouted a little.

CHAPTER XVII

Margaret, it is sad to relate, was much less concerned about the two
men who were in love with her than is considered becoming in a woman of
hea