Phroso

ds forlorn,' still beckoned me; perhaps I felt that London was too full, the Highlands rather fuller, the Swiss mountains most insufferably crowded of them all

er, and that she would never set foot in it. This declaration was rather annoying, because I had imagined myself, spending my honeymoon with Beatrice on the island; but life is not all honeymoon, and I decided to have the island none the less. Besides I was not to be married for a year. Mrs Kennett Hipgrave had insisted on this delay in order that we might b

to be paid to the lord's bankers in London, and the second half to him in Neopalia, when he delivered possession to me. The Turkish Government ha

im. You are over a hundred miles from the nearest land-Rhodes, you see.' (He laid a map before me.) 'You are off the steamship tracks; the Austrian Lloyds to Alexandria leave y

f doing such a thing

d picturesque. It is nine miles long and five broad. It grows cotton, wine, oil

ndred and seventy of them, all told. I

at having to sell. "My dear island," he writes, "is second to my dead son's honour, and

p of unpaid de

don with his cousin Constantine-by no means an improving companion,

I sympathised with him

middle of the island, nearly a thousand feet above the sea. I'm afraid it's a tumble-down old place, and will swallow a lot of

ays she won't go there on a

lord,' cried he, ag

it, Mr Mason. Well, good day. I'

the very day-on

shall be the

it, however, I was rewarded for my virtue (and if that's not luck in this huddle-muddle world I don't know what is); the Turkish Ambassador dropped in, and presentl

you?' he asked, after a little conversati

d I, 'for your ready co

te, such as it is, will be safer. Well, I'

n there a lot, and, of course, I talk the tongue, because I spent t

is beard, as he obs

killed him, and turned the purchaser-he was a Frenchman, a Baron d

ns! Was tha

a conservative part of the world, y

hearted folk,' said I; 'unsophistic

'and that the lord has no business to sell it. They may be good

have any rights,

as when he hasn't any. However, autres temps autres m?urs; I don't suppos

nment will see to

y nature a grave man, he gave a low humorous

can rely on that, Lo

ce, your Excellency?' I ventu

were official. Our Governor in that district of the em

In fact I thought it prudent to be ready for any trouble that the old-world notions of the Neopalians might occasion. But in my heart I meant to be very popular with them. For I cherished the generous design of paying the whole tribute out of my own pocket, and of disestablishing in Neopalia what seems to be the only institution in no danger of such treatment here-the ta

elp me to take possession. The boy had almost wept on my neck when I asked him to come; he had just left Woolwich, and was not to join his battalion for six months; he was thus, as he put it, 'at a loose end,' and succeeded in persuading his parents that he ought to learn modern Greek. General Swinton was rather cold about the project; he said that Denny

here two chairs had been tilted up in token of pre-engagement. The man-for the pair were man and woman-was tall and powerfully built; his complexion was dark, and he had good regular features; he looked also as if he had a bit of a temper somewhere about him. I was conscious of having seen him before, and suddenly recollected that by a curious chance I had run up against him twice in St James's Street that very day. The lady was handsome; she had an Italian cast of face, and moved with much grace; her manner was rather ela

said Denny in a tone that sounded wistful

ng is; and I've told Hogvardt, my old dragoman, to meet us in

a German,

Anyhow, he chatters Greek like a parrot. He's a pretty go

won't,' admitte

ly, 'as I'm going for the sake

uch. Now why shouldn't the lady talk Greek, if Greek were the language that came naturally to her tongue? It would be as good a shield against eavesdroppers as most languages; unless indeed I, who was known to be an amateur of Greece and Greek things, were looked upon as a possible listener. Recollecting the glances which I had detected, recollecting again those chance meetings, I ventured on a covert gaze at the lady. Her ha

ee to that. I s

'As you will,' with eloquent shoulders, smiled at her, and, reaching across the table, patted h

e caught my gaze retreating in hasty confusion to my plate. I dared not look up again,

a moment as a man does when a question takes him unawares. There was silence at the next table also. The fancy seemed absurd

. We shall go to Rhodes. Hogvardt will have got me a little yacht, and then-good-bye to all this!' And a great longing for solitude and a natural li

ry well. Looking up, I saw Miss Hipgrave, her mother, and young Bennett Hamlyn

cried Beatrice. 'You're at the savour

I asked, rising. 'Take th

ing, though. Oh, yes, we're going to dine with Mr Bennett Hamlyn. Th

bestowed on him. The lady there had risen already and was making for the door. The man lingered and looked at Hamlyn, seeming inclined to back up his bow with a few words of greeting. Hamlyn's air was not, however, encouraging, and

?' said he, with a

ed to give dinners; you're a sort of automatic feeding-machine. You

th that peculiar lift of her brows which meant, '

kly. 'I'm awfully happy to give y

this subject, but I thought

said I, 'is very

She understood my

o Hamlyn. 'We shall civilise him in time, though; then I be

ncivilised by

and!' cried Beatrice.

By the way, Hamlyn,

yn went red from the edge of his clipped whisker on the righ

one; 'he's not a friend of mine

not, happily, in itself

s of me in the train betwe

,' observed Denny i

sked Mrs Hipgrave, who

believe,' answere

s his name

ollect,' said Hamly

atrice, attacking her oysters wh

ost charming creature in the world, but not the o

atter to you either, you know. Do go

st now, but it's gone again. Look here, though, I beli

os, does it?' said I

n Bedlam if you're so very tedious. What in the

and a stage direction might add

repeated t

asked Hamlyn, with a nervous de

' I hazarded, 'be Cons

it was. Anyhow, the less you see of him, W

ing that everybody follows my train of thought-'it's such a sma

lace?' cried Beatrice

lia, of cou

ept you, be so insane as

lained, as I rose for the last time; for I had been g

ack,' pronounced Beatrice decisively; sh

off together; as

t chap's got n

n--?'

s bad as Miss Hipgrave say

utely no end to

ooked s

with his dinne

opolised my mind, and my attachment to Beatrice was not of such a romantic character as to make me ready to be jealous on slight

d, I don't,' said

side the restaurant, and I had just perceived a scrap of paper lying on the mosaic pavement. I st

ng for my eye-glass, which was (as us

ad what was written on the back.

-small yacht ther

hird, I guessed that he would go to Neopalia; for a fourth, I fancied that Neopalia was the place to which the lady had declared she would accompany him. Then I fell to wondering why all these things should be so,

rved Denny, in a tone expressive of exaggerated

aid I. But I took the liberty of slipping Mr Cons

. I went to bed still thinking of my purchase, and I recollect that the last thing which

an answer to