ere's an end of it, Mr. Mason. Well, good day. I'm
to have possession in a month?"

"In a month to the very day--on the seventh of May."

"All right, I shall be there to take it;" and escaping from the legal
quarter, I made my way to my sister's house in Cavendish Square. She
had a party, and I was bound to go by brotherly 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 in, and presently James came and took me up to him.
My brother-in-law, James Cardew, is always anxious that I should know
the right people. The pasha received me with great kindness.

"You are the purchaser of Neopalia, aren't you?" he asked, after a
little conversation. "The matter came before me officially."

"I'm much obliged," said I, "for your ready consent to the transfer."

"Oh, it's nothing to us. In fact, our tribute, such as it is, will be
safer. Well, I'm sure I hope you'll settle in comfortably."

"Oh, I shall be all right. I know the Greeks very well, you know; been
there a lot, and, of course, I talk the tongue, because I spent two
years hunting antiquities in the Morea and some of the islands."

The pasha stroked his beard as he observed in a calm tone:

"The last time a Stefanopoulos tried to sell Neopalia the people
killed him, and turned the purchaser--he was a Frenchman, a Baron
d'Ezonville--adrift in an open boat, with nothing on but his shirt."

"Good heavens! Was that recently?"

"No; two hundred years ago. But it's a conservative part of the world,
you know." And his excellency smiled.

"They were described to me as good-hearted folk," said I;
"unsophisticated, of course, but good-hearted."

"They think that the island is theirs, you see," he explained, "and
that the lord has no business to sell it. They may be good-hearted,
Lord Wheatley, but they are tenacious of their rights."

"But they can't have any rights," I expostulated.

"None at all," he assented. "But a man is never so tenacious of his
rights as when he hasn't any. However, _autres temps, autres moeurs_.
I don't suppose you'll have any trouble of that kind. Certainly, I
hope not, my dear lord."

"Surely your government will see to that?" I suggested.

His excellency looked at me; then, although by nature a grave man, he
gave a low, humorous chuckle, and regarded me with visible amusement.

"Oh, of course, you can rely on that,