Lady Maud held out her hand cordially.
'I've wanted to know you ever so long,' she said, in her sweet low voice.
'That's very kind of you,' Margaret answered.
It is not easy to find a proper reply to people who say they have long hoped to meet you, but Griggs came to the rescue, as he shook hands in his turn.
'That was not a mere phrase,' he said with a smile. 'It's quite true.
Lady Maud wanted me to give her a letter to you a year ago.'
'Indeed I did,' asseverated the beauty, nodding, 'but Mr. Griggs said he didn't know you well enough!'
'You might have asked me,' observed Logotheti. 'I'm less cautious than
Griggs.'
'You're too exotic,' retorted Lady Maud, with a ripple in her voice.
The adjective described the Greek so well that the others laughed.
'Exotic,' Margaret repeated the word thoughtfully.