She saw the bony head of Paul Griggs, and she smiled at him from a distance.

He was talking to a very handsome and thoroughbred looking woman in plain black velvet, who had the most perfectly beautiful shoulders Margaret had ever seen.
Mustapha Pasha led the Primadonna to the group.
'Lady Maud,' he said to the beauty, 'this is my old friend Senorita da Cordova.

Countess Leven,' he added, for Margaret's benefit.
She had not met him more than three times, but she did not resent being called his old friend.

It was well meant, she thought.
Lady Maud held out her hand cordially.
'I've wanted to know you ever so long,' she said, in her sweet low voice.
'That's very kind of you,' Margaret answered.
It is not easy to find a proper reply to people who say they have long hoped to meet you, but Griggs came to the rescue, as he shook hands in his turn.
'That was not a mere phrase,' he said with a smile.

'It's quite true.
Lady Maud wanted me to give her a letter to you a year ago.' 'Indeed I did,' asseverated the beauty, nodding, 'but Mr.Griggs said he didn't know you well enough!' 'You might have asked me,' observed Logotheti.