Fair Margaret - Page 90/206

Logotheti's motor car was built to combine the greatest comfort and the

greatest speed which can be made compatible. It was not meant for

sport, though it could easily beat most things on the road, for though

the Greek lived a good deal among sporting men and often did what they

did, he was not one himself. It was not in his nature to regard any

sport as an object to be pursued for its own sake. Only the English

take that view naturally, and, of late years, some Frenchmen. All other

Europeans look upon sport as pastime which is very well when there is

nothing else to do, but not at all comparable with love-making, or

gambling, for the amusement it affords.

They take the view of the late

Shah of Persia, who explained why he would not go to the Derby by

saying that he had always known that one horse could run faster than

another, but that it was a matter of perfect indifference to him which

that one horse might be. In the same way Logotheti did not care to

possess the fastest motor car in Europe, provided that he could be

comfortable in one which was a great deal faster than the majority.

Moreover, though he was by no means timid, he never went in search of

danger merely for the sake of its pleasant excitement. Possibly he was

too natural and too primitive to think useless danger attractive; but

if danger stood between him and anything he wanted very much, he could

be as reckless as an Irishman or a Cossack--which is saying all there

is to be said.

The motor tooted and whizzed itself from Mrs. Rushmore's gate to the

stage entrance of the Opéra in something like thirty minutes without

the slightest strain, and could have covered the distance in much less

time if necessary.

Logotheti found Schreiermeyer sitting alone in the dusk, in the stalls.

Half the footlights and one row of border lights illuminated the stage,

and a fat man in very light grey clothes, a vast white waistcoat and a

pot hat was singing 'Salut demeure' in a nasal half-voice to the tail

of the Commendatore's white horse, from Don Juan. The monumental

animal had apparently stopped to investigate an Egyptian palm tree

which happened to grow near the spot usually occupied by Marguerite's

cottage. The tenor had his hands in his pockets, his hat was rather on

the back of his head, and he looked extremely bored.

So did Schreiermeyer when Logotheti sat down beside him. He turned his

round glasses to the newcomer with a slight expression of recognition

which was not perceptible at all in the gloom, and then he looked at

the stage again, without a word. The tenor had heard somebody moving in

the house, and he stuck a single glass in his eye and peered over the

footlights into the abyss, thinking the last comer might be a woman, in

which case he would perhaps have condescended to sing a little louder

and better. A number of people were loafing on the stage, standing up

or sitting on the wooden steps of somebody's enchanted palace, but

Logotheti could not see Margaret amongst them.