rest of
her hair preparatory to getting ready for bed, when he walked in
without any preliminary knock.

"How are you getting on? All right?" Then after a momentary
inspection of the many garments that festooned the dirty walls, he
added: "I don't think you've got very good taste in clothes!"

CHAPTER II

"All women are good; good for something, or good for nothing."
CERVANTES.

The next morning Emile made his entrance with the same complete
disregard of ceremony. Arithelli was still in bed and only half awake.
She raised herself slightly and looked at him with sleepy eyes.

"Oh!" she said. "I didn't hear you knock."

There was the same entire lack of embarrassment in her manner that she
had shown on the previous night. Almost before she had finished her
sentence she shut her eyes again, and leant back yawning. It seemed a
matter of the greatest indifference to her whether he was there or not.
Emile's interest rose by several degrees as he sat down on the edge of
the bed.

"I didn't knock," he said, speaking English fluently enough, but with
the hard, clipped accents of the Slav. "I can't bother about all that
humbug. If you're straight with me I'll be straight with you, and we
may as well be friends. I dare say you think you're very good-looking
and all that, but it doesn't make any difference to me. You're here,
and I'm here, so we may as well be here together."

"I'm so sorry," Arithelli replied, "but I'm always so stupid and sleepy
in the mornings. Do you mind saying it all over again?"

And very much to his own surprise Emile Poleski repeated his remarks.
It struck him that there was something of the boy, the _gamin_, about
her in spite of her exotic appearance. That was so much the better and
would suit admirably with his schemes for her. It was better that she
should not be too much of a woman; for in the realms of anarchy there
is no sex, though comradeship is elevated to the dignity of a fine art.

For chivalry and love making there is neither the time nor the desire,
and those who are wedded to _La Liberte_ find her an all-sufficient
idol for purposes of worship. Human life is held of small account, to
join the Cause being equivalent to the signing of one's own death
warrant. One would probably have to die to-morrow if not to-day, and
whether it were sooner or later mattered little. Emile's fierce
devotion to the cause of his oppressed country had been the mea