Cecil said, "Yes," while Freddy edged away.

"I was coming to show you this delightful letter from those friends
of Miss Honeychurch." He quoted from it. "Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it
romance? most certainly they will go to Constantinople. They are taken
in a snare that cannot fail. They will end by going round the world."

Cecil listened civilly, and said he was sure that Lucy would be amused
and interested.

"Isn't Romance capricious! I never notice it in you young people; you
do nothing but play lawn tennis, and say that romance is dead, while the
Miss Alans are struggling with all the weapons of propriety against the
terrible thing. 'A really comfortable pension at Constantinople!' So
they call it out of decency, but in their hearts they want a pension
with magic windows opening on the foam of perilous seas in fairyland
forlorn! No ordinary view will content the Miss Alans. They want the
Pension Keats."

"I'm awfully sorry to interrupt, Mr. Beebe," said Freddy, "but have you
any matches?"

"I have," said Cecil, and it did not escape Mr. Beebe's notice that he
spoke to the boy more kindly.

"You have never met these Miss Alans, have you, Mr. Vyse?"

"Never."

"Then you don't see the wonder of this Greek visit. I haven't been
to Greece myself, and don't mean to go, and I can't imagine any of my
friends going. It is altogether too big for our little lot. Don't you
think so? Italy is just about as much as we can manage. Italy is heroic,
but Greece is godlike or devilish--I am not sure which, and in either
case absolutely out of our suburban focus. All right, Freddy--I am
not being clever, upon my word I am not--I took the idea from another
fellow; and give me those matches when you've done with them." He lit a
cigarette, and went on talking to the two young men. "I was saying, if
our poor little Cockney lives must have a background, let it be Italian.
Big enough in all conscience. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel for
me. There the contrast is just as much as I can realize. But not the
Parthenon, not the frieze of Phidias at any price; and here comes the
victoria."

"You're quite right," said Cecil. "Greece is not for our little lot";
and he got in. Freddy followed, nodding to the clergyman, whom he
trusted not to be pulling one's leg, really. And before they had gone a
dozen yards he jumped out, and came running back for Vyse's match-box,
which had not been returned. As he took it, he said: "I'm so glad yo