g, my sweet wife," he cried, "not sleeping yet? Where will
your beauty be. Vlacho and I must plot and plan for your sake, but you
need not spoil your eyes with sleeplessness."

Constantine did it uncommonly well. His manner was a pattern for
husbands. I was guilty of a quiet laugh all to myself, in the veranda.

"For me? You're sure it's for me?" came in that Greek tongue with a
strange accent which had first fallen on my ears in the Optimum
restaurant.

"She's jealous, she's most charmingly jealous!" cried Constantine, in
playful rapture. "Does your wife pay you such compliments, Vlacho?"

"She has not cause, my lord. Now my Lady Francesca thinks she has cause
to be jealous of the Lady Euphrosyne."

Constantine laughed scornfully at the suggestion.

"Where is she now?" came swift and sharp from the woman. "Where is
Euphrosyne?"

"Why, she's a prisoner to that Englishman," answered Constantine.

I suppose explanations passed on this point, for the voices fell to a
lower level, as is apt to happen in the telling of a long story, and I
could not catch what passed till Constantine's tones rose again, as he
said:

"Oh, yes, we must have a try at getting her out, just to satisfy the
people. For me, she might stay there as long as she likes, for I care
for her just as little as, between ourselves, I believe she cares for
me."

Really, this fellow was a very tidy villain; as a pair, Vlacho and he
would be hard to beat--in England, at all events. About Neopalia I had
learned to reserve my opinion. Such were my reflections as I turned to
resume my interrupted crawl to safety. But in an instant I was still
again--still, and crouching close under the wall, motionless as an
insect that feigns death, holding my breath, my hand on the trigger. For
the door of the cottage was flung open, and Constantine and Vlacho
appeared on the threshold.

"Ah," said Vlacho, "dawn is nearly on us. See, it grows lighter on the
horizon."

A more serious matter was that, owing to the opened door and the lamp
inside, it had grown lighter on the veranda, so light that I saw the
three figures--for the woman had come also--in the doorway; so light
that my huddled shape would be seen if any of the three turned an eye
towards it. I could have picked off both men before they could move; but
a civilized education has drawbacks; it makes a man scrupulous; I did
not fire. I lay still, hoping that I should not be noticed. And I should
not have bee