'I've met one or two in business, Mrs. Rushmore, but I can't say I've known any as well as Mr. Logotheti.'
'You may think it strange that I should ask you about him at our first meeting,' said the good lady, 'but I'm an American, and I cannot help feeling that a fellow-countryman's opinion of a foreigner is very valuable. You are, I understand, an old friend of Miss Donne's, though I have not had the pleasure of meeting you before, and you have probably heard that she has made up her mind to marry Monsieur Logotheti. I am bound to confess, as her dear mother's oldest friend, that I am very apprehensive of the consequences. I have the gravest apprehensions, Mr. Van Torp.'
'Have you really?' asked the millionaire with caution, but sympathetically. 'I wonder why!'
'A Greek!' said Mrs. Rushmore sadly. 'Think of a Greek!'
Mr. Van Torp, who was not without a sense of humour, was inclined to answer that, in fact, he was thinking of a Greek at that very moment. But he abstained. [{160}]
'There are Greeks and Greeks, Mrs. Rushmore,' he answered wisely.
'That is true,' answered the lady, 'but I should like your opinion, as one of our most prominent men of business—as one who, if I may say so, has of late triumphantly established his claim to respect.' Mr. Van Torp bowed and waved his hand in acknowledgment of this high praise. 'I should like your opinion about this—er—this Greek gentleman whom my young friend insists upon marrying.'
'Really, Mrs. Rushmore——'
'Because if I thought there was unhappiness in store for her I would save her, if I had to marry the man myself!'
Mr. Van Torp wondered how she would accomplish such a feat.