'Character!' cried the Baci-Roventi with a deep note that made the open piano vibrate. 'His stomach is his heart, and his character is his appetite!'
She bent her heavy brows and fixed her gleaming black eyes on him with a tragic expression.
'"Let them cant about decorum who have characters to lose,"' quoted
Logotheti softly.
This delicate banter went on for twenty minutes, very much to Schreiermeyer's inward satisfaction, for it proved that at least four members of his company were on good terms with him and with each other; for when they had a grudge against him, real or imaginary, they became sullen and silent in his presence, and eyed him with the coldly ferocious expression of china dogs.
At last they all rose and went away in a body, leaving Margaret with
Logotheti.
'I had quite forgotten that it was my birthday,' she said, when they were gone.
'I've brought you a little seal,' he answered, holding out the intaglio.
She took it and looked at it.
'How pretty!' she exclaimed. 'It's awfully kind of you to have remembered to-day, and I wanted a seal very much.'
'It's a silly little thing, just a head on some sort of green stone. But I tried it on sealing-wax, and the impression is not so bad. I shall be very happy if it's of any use, for I'm always puzzling my brain to find something you may like.'