Evelyn Calvert is of the Calvert household, seated at Thymbra Farm to the north of Constantinople. She is wife to Frederick Calvert, and together they keep a table for guests of standing, Osman Hamdi Bey and General Patrice de MacMahon among them.
Evelyn steers a conversation through matters of war and of trade with a practised hand, and her sway over a gathering is plain to see. At a dinner in the farmhouse she moved easily among the guests, governing the humours of the table and keeping the talk in flow; set beside Sophia, a younger guest less sure of herself in company, her ease was the more marked — smooth and assured, and altogether at home in the society of the evening.