"'No?' said the girl with a faintly sarcastic inflection. 'Well, she wouldn't ... I suppose.' "'Besides which,' I went on, 'she gave me to understand she was living with this Monsieur Kinaitsky, so....' "'He supports her,' she said, 'she's very lucky.' "'How?' I asked, astonished at this peculiar sentiment. "'Because he never goes near her for, oh, since this three months. He's married, you know. You'll pass his house in the boat, only there's a fog on the Gulf to-night. And he supports four others. Very rich. And so long as she stays round she can do what she likes.' "'Would you mind telling me, my dear,' I said, 'why this gentleman supports all these ... er ... strangers?' She shrugged her shoulders and took my arm daintily. "'Because he's rich, I suppose,' she remarked. 'They all do it here. In England--no?' she added in inquiry. "'Well, not on such a lavish scale,' I admitted. 'Then there would be no harm in my going to see her where she lives?' "'Oh, sure! She wants you to. I'll go to-morrow, eh? And tell her you will come? What time?' "'What about the afternoon?' "'Yes. And now I'll tell you how to get there.' "'You'd better write it down,' I said, 'when we come to a light.' "As we approached the road running parallel to the curve of the Gulf the air became heavy and moist. It was October, with a chill in the midnight air. And for another thing, it was as quiet as any country road of an autumn night at home. Our feet padded softly on the matted leaves lying wet on the path when we turned into the main road, and through the gardens of the villas came a faint breath of air laden with salt and the dead odours of the river delta. We seemed to be alone in the world, we two, as we hurried along in the darkness, and the girl pressed more closely to me as though for protection against unseen dangers. And yet, so crystal clear was her soul, that there lay on my mind a delicious fancy that she was deliberately impersonating the woman who had talked to her of me, that she was offering herself as a chaste and temporary substitute for the being whom, so she assumed, we both loved.