“‘How did it come about?’ he asked. “Somehow I found myself telling him. “‘When I was young—that is to say, after I had left Oxford—I thought I’d like to see the world, so I started; I travelled, stopping sometimes for six months or two if I liked the place. Then when I got tired of that, I took to specialising in different subjects, giving a year, two years, three, to each. So I drifted on till the war, and here I am.’ “‘I see,’ he said. ‘And now you’re bored.’ “‘Yes,’ I said, adding, ‘and worse.’ “He made no comment on that; I don’t know whether he heard. He said presently, in the same tone as he would have used to remark on current politics,— “‘I’m going to Ephesus to-morrow, you’d better come with me. My name’s MacPherson.’ “‘All right,’ I said, ‘I’ll come. My name’s Malory. What are you going to do at Ephesus?’ “He replied, ‘Excavate.’ * * * * * “That will tell you what MacPherson was like; an eccentric, laconic sort of fellow; he never argued, he just made proposals, and, whether they were accepted or declined, nodded briefly in acquiescence without further discussion. For a long time I thought that I should never get any further with him, then gradually I began to find him out: a grim, sardonic soul, with only one passion in life, if I can give the name of passion to a determination so cold and unshakable; I mean his passion for excavation. I have seen him labouring for hours under the sun, dusty and indistinguishable from the ruins among which he worked, apparently tireless and thirstless; I have seen him labour like a man under the domination of a great inspiration, of a force such as drives fanatics to cut their own heads and cover their own backs with wales from the rod, but I have never heard an expression of delight or enthusiasm, or even of satisfaction, escape his lips at the result of his labours. Scientists and archæologists came to him with respect, invited his opinion, paid him compliments evidently sincere; he listened in total indifference, neither disclaiming nor acknowledging, only waiting for them to have done that he might get back to his work.