Count Pappas smiled ruefully. “Do you know the reason? The Greeks haven’t made
the transition to automobiles. In their hearts they’re still driving donkeys.”
“You’re joking.”
“Unfortunately no. If you want insight into the Greeks, Catherine, don’t read the
guidebooks; read the old Greek tragedies. The truth is, we still belong to other centuries.
Emotionally we’re very primitive. We’re filled with grand passions, deep joys and great
sorrows, and we haven’t learned how to cover them up with a civilized veneer.”
“I’m not sure that’s a bad thing,” Catherine replied.
“Perhaps not. But it distorts reality. When outsiders look at us, they are not seeing
what they think they see. It is like looking at a distant star. You are not really seeing the
star, you are looking at a reflection of the past.”
They had reached the square. They passed a row of little stores with signs in the
windows that said “Fortune-Telling.”
“There are a lot of fortune-tellers here, aren’t there?” Catherine asked.
“We are a very superstitious people.”
Catherine shook her head. “I’m afraid I don’t believe in it.”
They had reached a small taverna. A hand-lettered sign in the window read:
“MADAME PIRIS, FORTUNE-TELLING.”
“Do you believe in witches?” Count Pappas asked.
Catherine looked at him to see if he was teasing. His face was serious. “Only on
Halloween.”
“By a witch I do not mean broomsticks and black cats and boiling kettles.”
“What do you mean?”
He nodded toward the sign. “Madame Piris is a witch. She can read the past and the
future.”
He saw the skepticism on Catherine’s face. “I will tell you a story,” Count Pappas
said. “Many years ago, the Chief of Police in Athens was a man named Sophocles Vasilly.
He was a friend of mine and I used my influence to help him get into office. Vasilly was a
very honest man. There were people who wished to corrupt him and since he would not be
corrupted, they decided that he would have to be eliminated.” He took Catherine’s arm
and they crossed the street toward the park.
“One day, Vasilly came to tell me of a threat that had been made on his life. He was a
brave man, but this threat disturbed him because it came from a powerful and ruthless
racketeer. Detectives were assigned to watch the racketeer and to protect Vasilly, but still
he had an uneasy feeling that he did not have long to live. That was when he came to me.”
Catherine was listening, fascinated. “What did you do?” she asked.
“I advised him to get a reading from Madame Piris.” He was silent, his thoughts