By unspoken consent, they moved away and sat down at some distance from
Madame De Rosa's chair, at the end of the room opposite to the picture.
Logotheti did not speak at once, but sat leaning forward, his wrists
resting on his knees, his hands hanging down limply, his eyes bent on
the carpet. As she sat, Margaret could see the top of his head; there
was a sort of fascination about his preternaturally glossy black hair,
and the faultless parting made it look like the wig on a barber's doll.
She thought of Lushington and idly wondered whether she was always to
be admired by men with phenomenally smooth hair.
'What are you thinking of?' Logotheti asked, looking up suddenly and
smiling as he met her eyes.
She laughed low.
'I was wondering how you kept your hair so smooth!' she answered.
'I should look like a savage if I did not,' he said. 'My only chance of
seeming civilised is to overdo the outward fashions of civilisation. If
I wore rough clothes like an Englishman, and did not smooth my hair and
let my man do all sorts of things to my moustache to keep it flat, I
should look like a pirate. And if I looked like a Greek pirate you
would have hesitated about coming to lunch with me to-day. Do you see?
There is a method in my bad taste.' Margaret looked at him a moment and then laughed again.
'So that's it, is it? How ingenious! Do you know that I have wondered
at the way you dress, ever since I met you?' 'I'm flattered. But think a moment. I daresay you wonder why I wear a
lot of jewellery, too. Of course it's in bad taste. I quite agree with
you. But the world is often nearer to first principles than you
realise. A man who wears a ruby in his tie worth ten thousand pounds is
not suspected of wanting to get other people's money as soon as he
makes acquaintance. On the contrary, they are much more likely to try
to get his, and are rather inclined to think him a fool for showing
that he has so much. It is always an advantage to be thought a fool
when one is not. If one is clever it is much better to have it believed
that one is merely lucky. In business everybody likes lucky people, but
every one avoids a clever man. It is one of the elements of success to
remember that!' 'You won't easily persuade any one that you are a foolish person,' said
Margaret.