eemed to him, an alluring and unattainable desire.

"Yes, it was interesting, and it fed my interest in her. I was too
experienced, I suppose, to expect to see her again, but it amused me to
brood upon her destiny. And it was a wish to learn something about that
strange trio that took me up to Gruenbaum's one afternoon when we
arrived, and I had the privilege of an interview with the concessionaire
himself. Surrounded by attentive minions, who had full 'confidence in
his dispositions' he reposed, with the urbane placidity of a corpulent
idol, in the curve of his great horseshoe desk. The yellow blinds were
down over the tall windows against the westering sun, and the statue
with the arm broken short gleamed like old ivory. It was startling to
see a student's sword and long German pipe hanging crossed on the wall
beside that ancient piece of statuary. Gruenbaum confessed, when I spoke
of them, to being 'largely cosmopolitan,' though loyal of course to the
Hellenic Government and his consular obligations to Great Britain. When
I made mention of Macedoine, he frowned heavily and admitted that he had
'taken the necessary steps.' The concessions in the Saloniki hinterland
would be dealt with by the Paris House 'with a view to safe-guarding our
interests.' No doubt the railroad to Uskub would in time render such
concessions extremely valuable. M. Nikitos doubtless obtained this
information surreptitiously from the official archives. But it was
necessary that these financial dispositions should be in the hands of
Western Europeans, since western capital was inevitably attracted to
such enterprises. He himself was a man of western ideas. Educated in
Berlin and Paris, he had been trained in affairs in Lombard Street. Our
banking system was sound and our climate ferocious--so he summed us up
more or less adequately. As regards the future of M. Macedoine he could
tell me nothing. No doubt that gentleman would be fully occupied in
setting his new venture on its feet. Oh, of course, these things
occasionally prospered; but in the long run, stability of credit was
essential. This, M. Macedoine, as far as could be ascertained, did not
command.

"The harsh, guttural, cultured voice rolled on--the voice of established
authority, of resistless financial power. To the simple and insular
intelligences of the islanders his potency must have seemed god-like
indeed. In this forgotten island of the sea he had assumed the role of
arbiter of th