“In a few days I suppose I must leave London again.”
“Oh! are you going abroad?”
“Yes, to Constantinople. I live there,” he said.
“In Constantinople! How very strange it must be to live among the Turks!”
“It is a very charming life, I assure you, Miss Rolfe,” he answered. “The Turk is always a gentleman, and his country is full of beauty and attraction, even though his capital may be muddy under foot.”
“Oh, well,” she said laughing, “I don’t think I should care to live there. I should be afraid of them!”
“Your fears would be quite ungrounded,” he declared. “A lady can walk unmolested in the streets of Constantinople at any hour of the day or night, which cannot be said, of your London here.”
Then, after a pause, he added—
“I think your friend Mr Barclay is coming with me.”
“With you?—to Constantinople?” she exclaimed in dismay. “When?”