“Mrs. Sterling. Don’t you know her?”
At the word “Mrs.” I felt that quick annoyance that sometimes comes to one when one hears for the first time that a woman one admires is married.
“No. Is her husband here?”
She indicated the shambling figure I have described to you.
“That!” I exclaimed. “That evil-looking beast her husband? Impossible!”
Madame de Stran gave me a quick, inquisitive look.
“Professor Sterling,” she said, “is perhaps the most distinguished man of science in Salonika. Why do you call him a beast?”
“Did I? I’m sorry. Tell me more about him.”
“Well, he describes himself as an experimental psychologist. He experiments in hypnotism, vivisects brains, and.... Last year he published in Rome a book that is talked about rather secretly.”
She stopped for a moment, and then laughed.