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.