He gave the porters instructions in fluent Greek and when they got in the boat and the boatmen asked for more money than he gave them, he said something that made them laugh and they shrugged their shoulders satisfied.
The luggage was passed through the Customs without examination, Humphrey's guide shaking hands with the officials, and they went into a sunny place where a large yellow car was standing.
'Are you going to drive me?' asked Carruthers.
'I'm her ladyship's chauffeur.'
'Oh, I see.
I didn't know.'
He was not dressed like a chauffeur.
He wore white duck trousers and espadrilles on his bare feet, a white tennis shirt, with no tie and open at the neck, and a straw hat.
Carruthers frowned.
Betty oughtn't to let her chauffeur drive the car like that.
It was true that he had had to get up before daybreak and it looked like being a hot drive up to the villa.
Perhaps under ordinary conditions he wore uniform.
Though not so tall as Carruthers, who was six feet one in his socks, he was not short; but he was broad-shouldered and squarely built, so that he looked stocky.
He was not fat, but plump rather; he looked as though he had a hearty appetite and ate well.
Young still, thirty perhaps or thirty-one, he had already a massive look and one day would be very beefy.
Now he was a hefty fellow.
He had a broad face deeply sun-burned, a short thickish nose, and a somewhat sullen look.
He wore a short fair moustache.
Oddly enough Carruthers had a vague feeling that he had seen him before.
'Have you been with her ladyship long?' he asked.
'Well, I have, in a manner of speaking.'
Carruthers became a trifle stiffer.
He did not quite like the manner in which the chauffeur spoke.
He wondered why he did not say 'sir' to him.
He was afraid Betty had let him get a little above himself.
It was like her to be a bit careless about such things.
But it was a mistake.
He'd give her a hint when he got a chance.
Their eyes met for an instant and he could have sworn that there was a twinkle of amusement in the chauffeur's.
Carruthers could not imagine why.
He was not aware that there was anything amusing in him.
'That, I suppose, is the old city of the Knights,' he said distantly, pointing to the battlemented walls.
'Yes.
Her ladyship'll take you over.
We get a rare lot of tourists here in the season.'
Carruthers wished to be affable.
He thought it would be nicer of him to offer to sit by the chauffeur rather than behind by himself and was just going to suggest it when the matter was taken out of his hands.
The chauffeur told the porters to put Carruthers' bags at the back, and settling himself at the wheel said:
'Now if you'll hop in we'll get along.'
Carruthers sat down beside him and they set off along a white road that ran by the sea.
In a few minutes they were in the open country.
They drove in silence.
Carruthers was a little on his dignity.
He felt that the chauffeur was inclined to be familiar and he did not wish to give him occasion to be so.
He nattered himself that he had a manner with him that puts his inferiors in their place.
He thought with sardonic grimness that it would not be long before the chauffeur would be calling him 'sir'.
But the morning was lovely; the white road ran between olive groves and the farmhouses they passed now and then, with their white walls and flat roofs, had an Oriental look that took the fancy.
And Betty was waiting for him.
The love in his heart disposed him to kindliness towards all men and lighting himself a cigarette he thought it would be a generous act to offer the chauffeur one too.
After all, Rhodes was very far away from England and the age was democratic.