Halidé Hanoum, the well-known writer, 208 patriot, and feminist leader Dr. Adnan Bey, High Commissioner for 208 Constantinople Agha Aglou Ahmed Bey, Director of the 224 Angora Press A Luncheon Party at the Ottoman Bank, 240 Angora The Yaili with Drawn Curtains 255 Broussa 256 “He has the right to say, ‘Look at me’” 261 The Tomb of the Sultan Osman at Broussa 272 General Refet Pasha and Colonel Mougin 288 in Constantinople Lausanne Palace Hotel 304 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ An Englishwoman in Angora CHAPTER I ON BOARD THE “PIERRE LOTI”—TURKEY’S DEBT TO LOTI’S MAGIC PEN OVER a sea as smooth as ice, the sun shining brightly most of the way, the Messageries Maritimes steamer _Pierre Loti_ is carrying us to Smyrna. Ten years ago, to a beaten Turkey (unable, it was supposed, to face an enemy for years to come), I had taken the same trip. And now, despite the prophets, I am returning to a victorious people; doubly victorious, since all the odds were against them. “That is the kind of story I love,” I remarked to the sympathetic captain and his daughter, with whom I generally lunched as guest in their own cabin. They, indeed, were particularly interested in my adventure, for they knew the Near East well, and this was to be their last visit. Because he had just reached the age limit of those who ‘go down to the sea in ships,’ though it was only when you caught the word ‘papa’ upon his daughter’s lips that anyone would suspect the fact. So they are blessed who marry young! “It seems strange,” I told him one morning, “to be here—on board the _Pierre Loti_, and surely a presage of good luck, since his books have done so much to increase and widen my inborn sympathies with the East.” Still more strange it proved; since the captain himself had named the ship for his admiration of the great French writer and in memory of personal friendship between them. A rare literary association for a steamer once in the service of the Czars. Wherefore, also, I found the master’s works in the ship’s library, and could renew acquaintance with many an old favourite: “Ramuntcho,” “Matelot,” “Ispahan,” “Les Pêcheurs d’Islande” and the “Désenchantées.”