“Ah! then I understand she is a real woman?”
“Flesh and blood, according to Caliphronas.”
The Rector put down the picture with a sudden movement of irritation quite foreign to his usual courtly manner.
“I do not like Count Caliphronas,” he said abruptly. “Did he give you this portrait?”
“Yes.”
“Humph! And may I ask whom it is intended to represent?”
“A Greek girl, called Helena, who lives in the Island of Fantasy.”
“The Island of Fantasy?” repeated the Rector in a puzzled tone.
“I mean the Island of Melnos, in the southern archipelago of Greece.”
“How did it come by the extraordinary name of Fantasy?”