"Well," said Carlton, "even a Princess is entitled to some
consideration. Besides," he said, in a more amicable tone, "you
haven't a permit to photograph on the Acropolis. You know you
haven't." Carlton was quite sure of this, because there were no such
permits.
The amateur looked up in some dismay. "I didn't know you had to have
them," he said. "Where can I get one?"
"The King may give you one," said Carlton. "He lives at the palace.
If they catch you up here without a license, they will confiscate your
camera and lock you up. You had better vanish before they see you."
"Thank you. I will," said the tourist, anxiously.
"Now," thought Carlton, smiling pleasantly, "when he goes to the palace
with that box and asks for a permit, they'll think he is either a
dynamiter or a crank, and before they are through with him his interest
in photography will have sustained a severe shock."
As Carlton turned from watching the rapid flight of the photographer,
he observed that the Princess had remarked it also, as she had no doubt
been a witness of what had passed, even if she had not overheard all
that had been said. She rose from her enforced position of refuge with
a look of relief, and came directly towards Carlton along the rough
path that led through the debris on the top of the Acropolis. Carlton
had thought, as he watched her sitting on the wall, with her chin
resting on her hand, that she would make a beautiful companion picture
to the one he had wished to paint of Miss Morris--the one girl standing
upright, looking fearlessly out to sea, on the top of the low wall,
with the wind blowing her skirts about her, and her hair tumbled in the
breeze, and the other seated, bending intently forward, as though
watching for the return of a long-delayed vessel; a beautifully sad
face, fine and delicate and noble, the face of a girl on the figure of
a woman. And when she rose he made no effort to move away, or, indeed,
to pretend not to have seen her, but stood looking at her as though he
had the right to do so, and as though she must know he had that right.
As she came towards him the Princess Aline did not stop, nor even
shorten her steps; but as she passed opposite to him she bowed her
thanks with a sweet impersonal smile and a dropping of the eyes, and
continued steadily on her way.
Carlton stood for some short time looking after her, with his hat still
at his side. She seemed farther from him at that moment than she had
ever been before, although she had for the first time recognized him.
But he knew that it was only as a human being that she had recognized
him. He put on his hat, and sat down on a rock with his elbows on his
knees, and filled his pipe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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