III
“So you’re leaving for Marrakesh tomorrow,” said Miss Hetherington.
“You haven’t made a very long stay in Fez, have you? Wouldn’t it havebeen much easier to go to Marrakesh first and then to Fez, returning toCasablanca afterwards?”
“I suppose it would really,” said Hilary, “but reservations are rather dif-ficult to obtain. It’s pretty crowded here.”
“Not with English people,” said Miss Hetherington, rather disconsol-ately. “It really seems dreadful nowadays the way one meets hardly any ofone’s fellow-countrymen.” She looked round her disparagingly¹ and said,“It’s the French.”
Hilary smiled faintly. The fact that Morocco was a French colonial pos-session did not seem to count much with Miss Hetherington. Hotels any-where abroad she regarded as the prerogative² of the English travellingpublic.
“The French and the Germans and the Armenians and the Greeks,” saidMrs. Calvin Baker³, with a little cackle of laughter. “That scruffy⁴ little oldman is a Greek, I believe.”
“I was told he was,” said Hilary.
“Seems a person of importance,” said Mrs. Baker. “You just notice howthe waiters fly about for him.”
“They give the English hardly any attention nowadays,” said Miss Heth-erington, gloomily. “They always give them the most terrible back bed-rooms—the ones maids and valets used to have in the old days.”
“Well, I can’t say I’ve found any fault with the accommodation I’ve hadsince I came to Morocco,” said Mrs. Calvin Baker. “I’ve managed to get amost comfortable room and bath every time.”
“You’re an American,” said Miss Hetherington, sharply, and with somevenom in her voice. She clicked her knitting needles furiously.
“I wish I could persuade you two to come to Marrakesh with me,” saidHilary. “It’s been so pleasant meeting you and talking to you here. Really,it’s very lonely travelling all by oneself.”
“I’ve been to Marrakesh,” said Miss Hetherington in a shocked voice.
Mrs. Calvin Baker, however, appeared to be somewhat sold on the idea.
“Well, it certainly is an idea,” she said. “It’s over a month since I was inMarrakesh. I’d be quite happy to go there again for a spell, and I couldshow you round, too, Mrs. Betterton, and prevent you being imposedupon. It’s not until you’ve been to a place and looked right round it thatyou learn the

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