She led the Primadonna away through a curtained door to a small room furnished according to Eastern ideas of comfort, and she sat down on a low, hard divan, which was covered with a silk carpet. The walls were hung with Persian silks, and displayed three or four texts from the Koran, beautifully written in gold on a green ground. Two small inlaid tables stood near the divan, one at each end, and two deep English easy-chairs, covered with red leather, were placed symmetrically beside them. There was no other furniture, and there were no gimcracks about, such as Europeans think necessary in an 'oriental' room.
With her plain black velvet, Lady Maud looked handsomer than ever in the severely simple surroundings.
'Do you mind?' she asked, as Margaret sat down beside her. 'I'm afraid
I carried you off rather unceremoniously!'
'No,' Margaret answered. 'I'm glad to be quiet, it's so long since I was at a dinner-party.'
'I've always hoped to meet you,' said Lady Maud, 'but you're quite different from what I expected. I did not know you were really so young—ever so much younger than I am.'
'Really?'
'Oh, yes! I'm seven-and-twenty, and I've been married four years.'
'I'm twenty-four,' said Margaret, 'and I'm not married yet.'
She was aware that the clear eyes were studying her face, but she did not resent their scrutiny. There was something about her companion that inspired her with trust at first sight, and she did not even remember the impossible story Logotheti had told her.
'I suppose you are tormented by all sorts of people who ask things, aren't you?'