told him he was very cool, and
who sat beside him now on the roof of the Sports Club, had been
explaining that he came as an interpreter and was English himself, when
the door opened and Evanthia appeared. He had stopped short and let his
jaw drop, and his hand slowly reached up to remove his old straw hat.
The others, who were in white uniforms with red fezzes on their heads,
stepped back involuntarily in stupefaction at such an unexpected vision.
And he, dazed by his recent experience, stood staring at her as though
he were as astonished as the rest. For she came up to him in that long
stride of hers that always made him feel it would be hopeless to explain
to her what was meant by fear, and slipped her hand through his arm. "My
husband," she said, smiling at the men in fezzes, and she added, in
their own tongue. "My father was Solari Bey, who had the House of the
Cedars near the cemetery in Pera."

It was she who had been "very cool." She was wearing her black dress and
the toque with the high feather. Her eyes glowed mysteriously, and she
stood beside him dominating them all. He heard the astonished
interpreter mumbling: "Oh--ah! Really! Dear me! Most unexpected
pleasure! Plucky of you, permit me to say. Oh--ah!..." and the men in
fezzes making respectful noises in their throats as the conversation
suddenly became unintelligible. He had stood silent, watching her while
she spoke that bewildering jargon, the words rushing from her exquisite
lips and catching fire from the flash of her eyes. There was a potent
vitality in the tones of her voice that seemed to him must be
irresistible to all men. She spoke and they listened with rapt attentive
gaze. She commanded and they obeyed. They laughed, and bent their tall
heads to listen afresh. She might have been some supernatural being,
some marine goddess, come suddenly into her old dominions, and they her
devout worshippers.

He heard the word "captain" and opened his mouth to speak to the
interpreter.

"Is he English?" asked that gentleman. "She says he is a--well, I hardly
know how to explain just what she means.... You had better tell this
officer here. He speaks some English. Colonel Krapin? Ah, quite so. The
colonel wishes me to say, he must see the captain. Perhaps, if you will
allow us, we can sit down in the cabin, he says."

And when they had entered the cabin, and were seated about the table,
the young Jew, who had been cowering in the pantry, was brought fo