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“There, I fear, I must plead guilty.”

“You will see, when you have stayed among us a little longer, that it can be honestly interpreted to meet man’s present needs.”

“The freedom of women——?”

“The ‘seclusion’ comes from Byzantium. M. Kemal will change that, if only he does not himself make a foolish marriage.”

“How do you mean—foolish?”

“A princess. We attribute Enver’s downfall to his having married a princess. He then required money to maintain his ‘royal’ position; we do not inquire from whence it came! If M. Kemal Pasha follows his example we shall lose faith in his democracy.”

“And a foreigner?”

“That is almost as bad. The helpmeet of our choice for him should be one who would help the country to progress along Eastern lines, not Western. Rather a peasant than a foreigner or a princess.”

“I hope he may find one with the intelligence of Halidé Hanoum, and with her womanly charm. To me she seems wholly delightful. She can advance, and remain a woman, as our Anglo-Saxon reformers have seldom done.”