McClure's Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 5, April, 1896

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.

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. In the first place, I was not to be married for a year. Mrs. Kennett Hipgrave had insisted on this delay in order that we migh

o 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 had

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

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

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

of unpaid deb

on with his cousin Constantine, by no means an improving companion, i

I sympathized 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

e very day-on the

herly duty. As luck would have 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 i

you?" he asked, after a little conversati

d I, "for your ready co

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

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

is beard as he obse

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

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 moeurs. I don't suppos

nment will see to

nature a grave man, he gave a low, humorous c

can rely on that, Lo

ce, your excellency?" I ventu

t were official. Our governor in that part of the wo

t. 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-th

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 regiment 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 h

re two chairs had been tilted up in token of pre?ngagement. 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 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 elabo

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

kly, "as I'm going there to b

dn't the lady talk Greek, if Greek were the language that came naturally to her tongue? It would be as good a shield against idle listeners 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 handsome face expressed a mixture o

"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

om. We shall go to Rhodes. Hogvardt will have bought me a little yacht, and then-good-by to all this!" And a great longing for solitude and a natural

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

cried Beatrice. "You're at the savo

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, a

," said he, with a

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

ith that peculiar lift of her brows that meant, "

kly. "I'm awfully happy to give yo

this subject, but I thought I

said I, "is very

She understood my

to Hamlyn. "We shall civilize him in time, though. Then I be

ncivilized 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, constitute

s of me in the train betwe

," observed Denny, i

asked Mrs. Hipgrave, who

believe," answere

s his name

ollect," said Hamlyn

trice, attacking her oysters, whi

most charming creature in the world, but not the

tter 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:

s'?" I

asked Hamlyn, with a nervous de

," I hazarded, "be Con

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

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

ace?" cried Beatrice, w

lia, of cou

ept you be so insane as

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

ck," pronounced Beatrice, decisively; she

off together. As

t chap's got n

n-?" I

s bad as Miss Hipgrave say

utely no end to

ooked s

with his dinne

nopolized 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 eyeglass, which was, as usu

what was written on the back. It w

-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-w

rved Denny, in a tone expressive of exaggerated

aid I. And I took the liberty of slipping Mr. Con

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

an answer to