breathed through all their opulence, as if the rich trappings of their
present life still exhaled the fragrance of their native prairies. The
mere fact of being with such people was like a purifying bath. When the
yacht touched at Naples he agreed since they were so awfully kind--to go
on to Sicily. And when the chief steward, going ashore at Naples for
the last time before they got up steam, said: "Any letters for the post,
sir?" he answered, as he had answered at each previous halt: "No, thank
you: none."

Now they were heading for Rhodes and Crete--Crete, where he had never
been, where he had so often longed to go. In spite of the lateness of
the season the weather was still miraculously fine: the short waves
danced ahead under a sky without a cloud, and the strong bows of the
Ibis hardly swayed as she flew forward over the flying crests.

Only his hosts and their daughter were on the yacht-of course with
Eldorada Tooker and Mr. Beck in attendance. An eminent archaeologist,
who was to have joined them at Naples, had telegraphed an excuse at the
last moment; and Nick noticed that, while Mrs. Hicks was perpetually
apologizing for the great man's absence, Coral merely smiled and said
nothing.

As a matter of fact, Mr. and Mrs. Hicks were never as pleasant as
when one had them to one's self. In company, Mr. Hicks ran the risk of
appearing over-hospitable, and Mrs. Hicks confused dates and names in
the desire to embrace all culture in her conversation. But alone with
Nick, their old travelling-companion, they shone out in their native
simplicity, and Mr. Hicks talked soundly of investments, and Mrs. Hicks
recalled her early married days in Apex City, when, on being brought
home to her new house in Aeschylus Avenue, her first thought had been:
"How on earth shall I get all those windows washed?"

The loss of Mr. Buttles had been as serious to them as Nick had
supposed: Mr. Beck could never hope to replace him. Apart from his
mysterious gift of languages, and his almost superhuman faculty for
knowing how to address letters to eminent people, and in what terms to
conclude them, he had a smattering of archaeology and general culture on
which Mrs. Hicks had learned to depend--her own memory being, alas, so
inadequate to the range of her interests.

Her daughter might perhaps have helped her; but it was not Miss Hicks's
way to mother her parents. She was exceedingly kind to them, but left
them, as it were, to bring themsel