“Well, as you were no doubt both talking more sensibly than most of us,” Ralph laughed, “he certainly showed his discernment.”

“I daresay I am wrong,” Gervaise said quietly; “but you know we have our spies at Constantinople, and probably the sultan has his spies here; and the idea occurred to me that perhaps this man might be one of them.”

“Well, I am bound to say, Gervaise,” Ralph said, a little irritably, “I have never heard so grave an accusation brought on such insufficient evidence —­ or rather, as far as I can see, without a shadow of evidence of any kind.  We drop in upon a man who is one of our most respected merchants, whose family has been established here many years, whose interests must be the same as those of the Order; and because a guest of his does not care to take any active part in my joking with the girls, and because you imagine that there is a cunning expression on his face, you must straightway take it into your head that he must be a spy.”

“Excuse me, Ralph, I simply said that the idea occurred to me that he might be a spy, which is a very different thing to my accusing him of being one.  I am ready to admit that the chances are infinitely greater that he is an honest trader or a relation of the merchant, and that his presence here is perfectly legitimate and natural, than that he should be a spy.  Still, there is a chance, if it be but one out of a thousand, that he may be the latter.  I don’t think that I am at all of a suspicious nature, but I really should like to learn a little about this man.  I do not mean that I am going to try to do so.  It would be an unworthy action to pry into another’s business, when it is no concern of one’s own.  Still, I should like to know why he is here.”

Ralph shrugged his shoulders.

“This comes of living the life of a hermit, Gervaise.  Other people meet and talk, and enjoy what society there is in the city, without troubling their heads for a moment as to where people come from or what their business is here, still less whether they are spies.  Such ideas do not so much as occur to them, and I must say that I think the sooner you fall into the ways of other people the better.”

“There is no harm done,” Gervaise said composedly.  “I am not thinking of asking our bailiff to order him to be arrested on suspicion.  I only remarked that I did not like the man’s face, nor the way in which, while he pretended to be thinking of nothing, he was trying to overhear what we were saying.  I am quite willing to admit that I have made a mistake, not in devoting myself to Turkish, but in going to the merchant’s with you this evening.  I have had no experience whatever of what you call society, and, so far from it giving me pleasure to talk to strangers, especially to women, it seems to me that such talk is annoying to me, at any rate at present.  When I get to your age, possibly my ideas may change.  I don’t for