With many intervals for rest, Marie carried her sister to the end of the passage and out into the open air. The brothel was almost surrounded by fire: another five minutes, and she would have been too late. As she emerged into the street and looked around her, she saw it was deserted. No one in Salonika was interested in the burning of a brothel when great hotels, huge warehouses, and fine palaces were being destroyed. And degraded women are but poor loot when compared with jewels and drink.
As for Adolph and Tansy....
HOW IT GREW
To
T. Michael Pope
I SUPPOSE that, after all, I am at heart a good deal of a snob, for I remember taking enormous pleasure in being seen in Captain Porritt’s company as we sauntered by British Headquarters, and passed along by the side of the quay until we reached the Café Roma. For Porritt was most decidedly a notability in Salonika. He would have attracted attention anywhere. He was dark and sudden, like a Spaniard. He had an air of distinction, even of disdain, and though his face was peculiarly animated, it never revealed anything. He looked what he was; an eager young aristocrat, absorbed in and hugely entertained by his surroundings. Every part of him had intuition: his hands knew.
Now, I must explain that Porritt had been in some little trouble. A lady, I think; certainly not drink. She was somebody else’s wife, and Somebody Else happened to be a millionaire merchant. So for three weeks Salonika had been closed to Porritt, and to-day was the first day of the ban’s lifting.