The water was warm and they sunned themselves on the deck.
The caique was roomy, comfortable, and luxurious.
Betty showed him over and they came upon Albert tinkering with the engines.
He was in filthy overalls, his hands were black and his face was smeared with grease.
'What's the matter, Albert?' said Betty.
He raised himself and faced her respectfully.
'Nothing, m'lady.
I was just 'aving a look round.'
'There are only two things Albert loves in the world.
One is the car and the other's the yacht.
Isn't that true, Albert?'
She gave him a gay smile and Albert's rather stolid face lit up.
He showed his beautiful white teeth.
'That's true, m'lady.'
'He sleeps on board, you know.
We rigged up a very nice cabin for him aft.'
Carruthers fell into the life very easily.
Betty had bought the estate from a Turkish pasha exiled to Rhodes by Abdul Hamid and she had added a wing to the picturesque house.
She had made a wild garden of the olive grove that surrounded it.
It was planted with rosemary and lavender and asphodel, broom that she had sent from England and the roses for which the island was famous.
In the spring, she told him, the ground was carpeted with anemones.
But when she showed him her property, telling him her plans and what alterations she had in mind, Carruthers could not help feeling a little uneasy.
'You talk as though you were going to live here all your life,' he said.
'Perhaps I am,' she smiled.
'What nonsense!
At your age.'
'I'm getting on for forty, old boy,' she answered lightly.
He discovered with satisfaction that Betty had an excellent cook and it gratified his sense of propriety to dine with her in the splendid dining-room, with its Italian furniture, and be waited on by the dignified Greek butler and the two handsome footmen in their flamboyant uniforms.
The house was furnished with taste; the rooms contained nothing that was not essential, but every piece was good.
Betty lived in considerable state.
When, the day after his arrival, the Governor with several members of his staff came over to dinner she displayed all the resources of the household.
The Governor entering the house passed between a double row of flunkeys magnificent in their starched petticoats, embroidered jackets, and velvet caps.
It was almost a bodyguard.
Carruthers liked the grand style.
The dinner-party was very gay.
Betty's Italian was fluent and Carruthers spoke it perfectly.
The young officers in the Governor's suite were uncommonly smart in their uniforms.
They were very attentive to Betty and she treated them with easy cordiality.
She chaffed them.
After dinner the gramophone was turned on and they danced with her one after the other.
When they were gone Carruthers asked her:
'Aren't they all madly in love with you?'
'I don't know about that.
They hint occasionally at alliances permanent or otherwise, but they take it very good-naturedly when I decline with thanks.'
They were not serious.
The young ones were callow and the not so young were fat and bald.
Whatever they might feel about her Carruthers could not for a moment believe that Betty would make a fool of herself with a middle-class Italian.
But a day or two later a curious thing happened.
He was in his rooms dressing for dinner; he heard a man's voice outside in the passage, he could not hear what was said or what language was spoken, and then ringing out suddenly Betty's laughter.
It was a charming laugh, rippling and gay, like a young girl's, and it had a joyous abandon that was infectious.