ow I'm only a sort of friend.'

"'Oh, yes!' again with the dwelling accent. 'Of course, a friend. And
she talk and talk and tell me all about you and say to me: 'No, he'll
never come. I'll never see him again. Forget it,' and then she sits and
looks at the sea for an hour. And when I say to her: 'Why don't you
write?' she say, 'I have,' and is all sad and miserable.'

"'But she didn't tell _me_ this when she wrote.'

"'No?' said the girl with a faintly sarcastic inflection. 'Well, she
wouldn't ... I suppose.'

"'Besides which,' I went on, 'she gave me to understand she was living
with this Monsieur Kinaitsky, so....'

"'He supports her,' she said, 'she's very lucky.'

"'How?' I asked, astonished at this peculiar sentiment.

"'Because he never goes near her for, oh, since this three months. He's
married, you know. You'll pass his house in the boat, only there's a fog
on the Gulf to-night. And he supports four others. Very rich. And so
long as she stays round she can do what she likes.'

"'Would you mind telling me, my dear,' I said, 'why this gentleman
supports all these ... er ... strangers?' She shrugged her shoulders and
took my arm daintily.

"'Because he's rich, I suppose,' she remarked. 'They all do it here. In
England--no?' she added in inquiry.

"'Well, not on such a lavish scale,' I admitted. 'Then there would be no
harm in my going to see her where she lives?'

"'Oh, sure! She wants you to. I'll go to-morrow, eh? And tell her you
will come? What time?'

"'What about the afternoon?'

"'Yes. And now I'll tell you how to get there.'

"'You'd better write it down,' I said, 'when we come to a light.'

"As we approached the road running parallel to the curve of the Gulf the
air became heavy and moist. It was October, with a chill in the midnight
air. And for another thing, it was as quiet as any country road of an
autumn night at home. Our feet padded softly on the matted leaves lying
wet on the path when we turned into the main road, and through the
gardens of the villas came a faint breath of air laden with salt and the
dead odours of the river delta. We seemed to be alone in the world, we
two, as we hurried along in the darkness, and the girl pressed more
closely to me as though for protection against unseen dangers. And yet,
so crystal clear was her soul, that there lay on my mind a delicious
fancy that she was deliberately impersonating the woman who had talked
to her of me, that she was offeri