of it, was again at work, playing an inane
melody, and upon the small stage two remarkably well-developed and
aquiline-featured women of mature age, dressed as very young children
in white socks, short skirts which displayed frilled drawers, and muslin
bonnets adorned with floating blue and pink ribbons, swayed to and fro
and joined their cracked voices in a duet, the French words of which
seemed to exhale a sort of _fade_ obscenity. While they swayed and
jigged heavily, showing their muscular legs to the staring audience,
they gazed eagerly about, seeking an admiration from which they might
draw profit when their infantile task was over. Presently they retired,
running skittishly, taking small leaps into the air, and aimlessly
blowing kisses to the night.

"Very fine girls!" murmured John to his young patrons. "They make much
money in Pera."

One of the young men shrugged his shoulders with a smile.

"Get us two Turkish coffees, John!" he said. Then he turned to his
companion. "I say, Ellis, have you noticed an English feller--at least
I take him to be English--who's sitting over there close to the stage,
sideways to us?"

"No; where is he?" asked his companion.

"You see that old Turk with the double chin?"

"Rather."

"Just beyond him, sitting with a guide who's evidently Greek."

"I've got him."

"Watch him. I never saw such a face."

A blowzy young woman, in orange color and green, with short
tinsel-covered skirts, bounded wearily on to the stage, smiling, and
began to sing:

"Je suis une boite de surprises!
O la la! O la la!
Je suis une boite de surprises."

Ellis looked across at the man to whom his attention had been drawn.
This man was seated by a little table on which were a siphon, a bottle
of iced water, and a tall tumbler nearly half-full of a yellow liquid.
He was smoking a large dark-colored cigar which he now and then took
from his mouth with a hand that was very thin and very brown. His face
was dark and browned by the sun, but looked startlingly haggard, as if
it were pale or even yellowish under the sunburn. About the eyes
there were large wrinkles, spraying downwards over the cheek bones and
invading the cheeks. He wore a mustache, and was well-dressed in a tweed
suit. But his low collar was not very fresh, and his tie was arranged in
a slovenly fashion and let his collar stud be seen. He sat with his
legs crossed, staring at the grimacing woman on the stage with a