THE RED SEA 



so other Englishmen of the upper classes, either 

 army men on shooting trips, or youths going out 

 with some idea of settling in the country. They 

 were a clean-built pleasant lot, good people to know 

 anywhere; but of no unusual interest. It was only 

 when one went abroad into the other nations that 

 inscribable human interest could be found. 



There was the Greek, Scutari, and his bride, a 

 languorous rather opulent beauty, with large dark 

 eyes for all men, and a luxurious manner of lying 

 back and fanning herself. She talked, soft voiced, 

 in half a dozen languages, changing from one to the 

 other without a break in either her fluency or her 

 thought. Her little lithe active husband sat around 

 and adored her. He was apparently a very able 

 citizen indeed, for he was going out to take charge 

 of the construction work on a German Railway. 

 To have filched so important a job from the Ger- 

 man's themselves shows that he must have had abil- 

 ity. With them were a middle-aged Holland couple 

 engaged conscientiously in travelling over the globe. 

 They had been everywhere the two American 

 hemispheres, from one Arctic Sea to another, Siberia, 

 China, the Malay Archipelago, this, that, and the 

 other odd corner of the world. Always they sat 

 placidly side by side, either in the saloon or on deck, 

 smiling benignly, and conversing in spaced com- 



39 



