many's side?' she asked.

'Why, yes,' I replied. 'We Americans are supposed to be nootrals, and
that means we're free to choose any side we fancy. I'm for the Kaiser.'

Her cool eyes searched me, but not in suspicion. I could see she
wasn't troubling with the question whether I was speaking the truth.
She was sizing me up as a man. I cannot describe that calm appraising
look. There was no sex in it, nothing even of that implicit sympathy
with which one human being explores the existence of another. I was a
chattel, a thing infinitely removed from intimacy. Even so I have
myself looked at a horse which I thought of buying, scanning his
shoulders and hocks and paces. Even so must the old lords of
Constantinople have looked at the slaves which the chances of war
brought to their markets, assessing their usefulness for some task or
other with no thought of a humanity common to purchased and purchaser.
And yet--not quite. This woman's eyes were weighing me, not for any
special duty, but for my essential qualities. I felt that I was under
the scrutiny of one who was a connoisseur in human nature.

I see I have written that I knew nothing about women. But every man
has in his bones a consciousness of sex. I was shy and perturbed, but
horribly fascinated. This slim woman, poised exquisitely like some
statue between the pillared lights, with her fair cloud of hair, her
long delicate face, and her pale bright eyes, had the glamour of a wild
dream. I hated her instinctively, hated her intensely, but I longed to
arouse her interest. To be valued coldly by those eyes was an offence
to my manhood, and I felt antagonism rising within me. I am a strong
fellow, well set up, and rather above the average height, and my
irritation stiffened me from heel to crown. I flung my head back and
gave her cool glance for cool glance, pride against pride.

Once, I remember, a doctor on board ship who dabbled in hypnotism told
me that I was the most unsympathetic person he had ever struck. He
said I was about as good a mesmeric subject as Table Mountain.
Suddenly I began to realize that this woman was trying to cast some
spell over me. The eyes grew large and luminous, and I was conscious
for just an instant of some will battling to subject mine. I was
aware, too, in the same moment of a strange scent which recalled that
wild hour in Kuprasso's garden-house. It passed quickly, and for a
second her eyes drooped. I seemed to re