"Why?" he asked, almost startled.

"I was introduced to your wife just now."

"Oh!"

There was a pause. Then Dion said:

"I'm glad you have met."

"So am I," said Mrs. Clarke, in a voice that sounded more husky even
than usual. "She sang that Greek song quite beautifully. I've just been
telling her that I want to show her some curious songs I have heard in
Turkey, and Asia Minor, at Brusa. There was one man who used to sing to
me at Brusa outside the Mosquee Verte. Dumeny took down the melody for
me."

"Did you like the 'Heart ever faithful'?"

"Of course it's excellent in that sledge-hammer sort of way, a superb
example of the direct. Stamboul is very indirect. Perhaps it has colored
my taste. It's full of mystery. Bach isn't mysterious, except now and
then--in rare bits of his passion music, for instance."

"I wonder if my wife could sing those Turkish songs."

"We must see. She sang that Greek song perfectly."

"But she's felt Greece," said Dion. "And I think there's something in
her that----"

"Yes?"

"I only mean," he said, with reserve in his voice, "that I think there's
something of Greece in her."

"She's got a head like a Caryatid."

"Yes," he said, with much less reserve. "Hasn't she?"

Mrs. Clarke had paid his Rosamund two noble compliments, he thought; and
he liked her way of payment, casual yet evidently sincere, the simple
utterance of two thoughts in a mind that knew. He felt a sudden glow of
real friendship for her, and, on the glow as it were, she said:

"Jimmy's quite mad about you."

"Still?" he blurted out, and was instantly conscious of a false step.

"He's got an extraordinary memory for a biceps, and then Jenkins talks
about you to him."

As they went on talking people began coming up from the black-and-white
dining-room. Dion said he would come to see Jimmy again, would visit the
gymnasium in the Harrow Road one day when Jimmy was taking his lesson.
Did Jimmy ever go on a Saturday? Yes, he was going next Saturday at
four. Dion would look in next Saturday. Now Mrs. Clarke and Rosamund had
met, and Mrs. Clarke evidently admired Rosamund in two ways, Dion felt
quite different about his acquaintance with her. If it had already been
agreed that Mrs. Clarke should show Rosamund Turkish songs, there was
no need for further holding back. The relief which had come to him made
Dion realize how very uncomfortable he had been about Mrs. Clarke in
the immediate past. He was now thoro