An odd place to choose.
'It must be deadly,' her friends said.
A few of them went to stay with her now and then and came back with reports of the beauty of the island and the leisurely charm of the life.
But of course it was very lonely.
It seemed strange that Betty, with her brilliance and her energy, should be content to settle there.
She had bought a house.
She knew no one but a few Italian officials, there was indeed no one to know; but she seemed perfectly happy.
Her visitors could not make it out.
But the life of London is busy and memories are short.
People ceased to concern themselves with her.
She was forgotten.
Then, a few weeks before I met Humphrey Carruthers in Rome, The Times announced the death of Sir James Welldon-Burns, second baronet.
His younger brother succeeded him in the title.
Betty had never had a child.
Carruthers continued to see her after the marriage.
Whenever he came to London they lunched together.
She had the ability to take up a friendship after a long separation as though no passage of time had intervened, so that there was never any strangeness in their meetings.
Sometimes she asked him when he was going to marry.
'You're getting on, you know, Humphrey.
If you don't marry soon you'll get rather old-maidish.'
'D'you recommend marriage?'
It was not a very kindly thing to say, because like everyone else he had heard that she was not getting on too well with her husband, but her remark piqued him.
'On the whole.
I think probably an unsatisfactory marriage is better than no marriage at all.'
'You know quite well that nothing would induce me to marry and you know why.'
'Oh, my dear, you're not going to pretend that you're still in love with me?'
'I am.'
'You are a damned fool.'
'I don't care.'
She smiled at him.
Her eyes always had that look, partly bantering, partly tender, that gave him such a happy pain in his heart.
Funny, he could almost localize it.
'You're rather sweet, Humphrey.
You know I'm devoted to you, but I wouldn't marry you even if I were free.'
When she left her husband and went to live in Rhodes Carruthers ceased to see her.
She never came to England.
They maintained an active correspondence.
He suggested coming to Rhodes for a few days, but she thought he had better not.
He understood why.
Everyone knew he had been madly in love with her.
Everyone knew he was still.
He did not know in what circumstances exactly the Welldon-Burnses had separated.
It might be that there had been a good deal of bad feeling.
Betty might think that his presence on the island would compromise her.
'She wrote a charming letter to me when my first book came out.
You know I dedicated it to her.
She was surprised that I had done anything so good.
Everyone was very nice about it, and she was delighted with that.
I think her pleasure was the chief thing that pleased me.
After all I'm not a professional writer, you know: I don't attach much importance to literary success.'