Kinaitsky's, that I had but one selfish motive, which was to protect
myself from a woman's contempt. Viewed at a distance, I believe there
was more in me than that. There is a radiant glow about it all, for me,
which convinces that for once I had laid hold of the real thing. A
magnificent memory! It is something, I submit, to cherish in one's heart
even a solitary episode untarnished by any ignoble shame.

"'You shall see, my dear,' I said, enigmatically, and then the carriage
stopped with a jerk and she appeared in a suddenly opened doorway,
bursting out, as it were, holding herself back with her hands on the
posts and devouring me with a look of extraordinary questing delight. It
was as though she wished to divine the very roots of my emotions. I sat
there, a tongue-tied fool, until Pollyni pushed me gently. Why didn't I
get out? So I got out and stood before her.

"She was changed. I suppose I ought to have had the wit to expect that,
but the fact remains that my first feeling was astonishment. She stood a
foot or so above me on the doorstep, and this vantage, together with a
species of gravity in her demeanour, conveyed an impression of tall
aloofness. As she stood there, composed and curious, in a loose blue
gown and her hair spread around her shoulders, the fine pale olive of
her forearms emerging and her fingers lightly laced, one thought of
vestal virgins, priestesses of obscure cults, and of the women who
figure in the fantastic stories of the Middle Ages. She was changed, and
the difficult element in the case was that she seemed to have changed
for the better. And suddenly the old familiar derisive smile broke, the
white teeth drew in the red lower lip, and she put her hand on my
shoulder. 'Come in,' she said in a low voice. 'I never really believed
you would come at all! And, Polly dear,' she added to the girl in the
carriage, 'won't you come up later and we'll go out--you know----' and
she waved her hand upward.

"'I'll come,' said Miss Sarafov with decision, and spoke rapidly to the
driver, who turned his horses round and began the descent to the _Via
Egnatia_.

"'So you have come at last,' said Captain Macedoine's daughter, as we
reached a small room opening on a balcony above. There was another small
room behind and this seemed to be the extent of her domain.

"'Yes,' I said, 'and now I am here, tell me what you think of it all.'

"'Think of what?' she demanded, sitting down near me.

"'Well,' I