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“En route!” said the shrill voice of Mrs. Forman.”Ethel! Mr. Graham! The best of things must end.”

“Tonight,” thought Mr. Lucas, “they will light the little lamp by the shrine. And when we all sit together on the balcony, perhaps they will tell me which offerings they put up.”

“I beg your pardon, Mr. Lucas,” said Graham, “but they want to fold up the rug you are sitting on.”

Mr. Lucas got up, saying to himself: “Ethel shall go to bed first, and then I will try to tell them about my offering too—for it is a thing I must do. I think they will understand if I am left with them alone.”

Ethel touched him on the cheek.”Papa! I’ve called you three times. All the mules are here.”

“Mules? What mules?”

“Our mules. We’re all waiting. Oh, Mr. Graham, do help my father on.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Ethel.”

“My dearest papa, we must start. You know we have to get to Olympia tonight.”

Mr. Lucas in pompous, confident tones replied: “I always did wish, Ethel, that you had a better head for plans. You know perfectly well that we are putting in a week here. It is your own suggestion.”

Ethel was startled into impoliteness.”What a perfectly ridiculous idea. You must have known I was joking. Of course I meant I wished we could.”

“Ah! if we could only do what we wished!” sighed Mrs. Forman, already seated on her mule.

“Surely,” Ethel continued in calmer tones, “you didn’t think I meant it.”

“Most certainly I did. I have made all my plans on the supposition that we are stopping here, and it will be extremely inconvenient, indeed, impossible for me to start.”

He delivered this remark with an air of great conviction, and Mrs. Forman and Mr. Graham had to turn away to hide their smiles

“I am sorry I spoke so carelessly; it was wrong of me. But, you know, we can’t break up our party, and even one night here would make us miss the boat at Patras.”

Mrs. Forman, in an aside, called Mr. Graham’s attention to the excellent way in which Ethel managed her father.

“I don’t mind about the Patras boat. You said that we should stop here, and we are stopping.”

It seemed as if the inhabitants of the Khan had divined in some mysterious way that the altercation touched them. The old woman stopped her spinning, while the young man and the two children stood behind Mr. Lucas, as if supporting him.

Neither arguments nor entreaties moved him. He said little, but he was absolutely determined, because for the first time he saw his daily life aright. What need had he to return to England? Who would miss him? His friends were dead or cold. Ethel loved him in a way, but, as was right, she had other interests. His other children he seldom saw. He had only one other relative, his sister Julia, whom he both feared and hated. It was no effort to struggle. He would be a fool as well as a coward if he stirred from the place which brought him happiness and peace.

At last Ethel, to humour him, and not disinclined to air her modern Greek, went into the Khan with the astonished dragoman to look at the rooms. The woman inside received them with loud welcomes, and the young man, when no one was looking, began to lead Mr. Lucas’ mule to the stable.

“Drop it, you brigand!” shouted Graham, who always declared that foreigners could understand English if they chose. He was right, for the man obeyed, and they all stood waiting for Ethel’s return.

She emerged at last, with close-gathered skirts, followed by the dragoman bearing the little pig, which he had bought at a bargain.