"Hallo!" he said, smiling, "I didn't hear you come in."
"I walk very soft," explained Zahara, "because I am not supposed
to be here."
She looked at him quizzically. "I don't see you for a long
time," she added, and in the tone of her voice there was a
caress. "I saw you more often in Port Said than here."
"No," replied Grantham, "I have been giving Agapoulos a rest.
Besides, there has been nobody worth while at any of the hotels
or clubs during the last fortnight."
"Somebody worth while coming to-night?" asked Zahara with
professional interest.
At the very moment that she uttered the words she recognized her
error, for she saw Grantham's expression change. Yet to her
strange soul there was a challenge in his coldness and the joy of
contest in the task of melting the ice of this English reserve.
"Lots of money," he said bitterly; "we shall all do well to-
night."
Zahara did not reply for a moment. She wished to close this line
of conversation which inadvertently she had opened up. So that,
presently:
"You look very lonely and bored," she said softly.
As a matter of fact, it was she who was bored of the life she led
in Limehouse--in chilly, misty Limehouse--and who had grown so
very lonely since Safiyeh had come.
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