"I'm sure it doesn't make the slightest difference to me. I know nothing about it, nothing at all. My chief officer was going to say something to me this morning and I shut him up at once. I knew perfectly well from the very first there was something like this in the wind and I made up my mind to have nothing at all to do with it. As master of the vessel it's impossible ... you can quite understand ... eh?" "That's all right," replied Mr. Dainopoulos, looking at his open palm. "No passport. Once you get outside, no matter. The young lady, she give me a paper. She loves my wife. She gives everything she may have to my wife." "Which isn't much, according to what you told me before. You grumbled to me, and said in so many words she cost you a lot of money to keep for a companion to your wife." Mr. Dainopoulos stared hard at his captain's sneering face. "That was before her mother got married again. Miss Solaris, she tell me her mother want somebody to look after the farms, by and by." "I don't want to hear anything about it," burst out Captain Rannie, turning round in his chair so that he could hear better. "And she say, she say," went on Mr. Dainopoulos steadily, "her mother perhaps, you understand, some women have one, two, three, four husband, you see? Well, her mother want a good man of business. So Miss Solaris she sign a paper for me. She give everything to my wife." "Everything! Which is nothing, I've no doubt." "Ah-h! Not nothing. I sell his tobacco now, and it's not nothing, I can tell you. No! By and by, Miss Solaris, now her mother marry again, will be rich. But she's crazy about that feller I told you she had here." "I don't remember anything about it. I make it a rule to have nothing to do with passengers. I expect no less," announced Captain Rannie, alert to hear every word. "Well, if a woman wants a man, she gets him," observed Mr. Dainopoulos gravely. "That's true, I admit," was the unexpected reply. "And you know well enough she'll find young Lietherthal easy if she wants him. Me, I think she'll stay round with _him_." And Mr. Dainopoulos jerked his finger in the direction of the _Kalkis_. Captain Rannie suddenly reversed himself on his chair and changed legs, uttering a sound like a snort. "Yes," said Mr. Dainopoulos. "My wife she thinks maybe he marry her." Captain Rannie moved his foot up and down and smiled unpleasantly. "No hope of that," he muttered. "Yes!" repeated Mr. Dainopoulos, jumping up to change a five-pound note into excellent Greek drachmas. "Yes! If she wants him to do it, it will be easy enough. You don't know her." Captain Rannie was heard to say in a low, hurried tone that he didn't want to. Mr. Dainopoulos grinned, which did not improve his appearance. He waved his fingers at his captain with a gesture indicating his jocular conviction that he did not believe it. "If I was single ..." he began, and ended with a loud "H--m!" and smiled again.