Lewis would have liked to fondle the children and the cats; but they all fled from him. He began to reproach himself for lacking sufficient simplicity. Was he never going to arrive at a quiet, easy life? What was to prevent him from settling down here as the proprietor of a villa amongst gigantic oil jars and the shafts of broken columns? To seek what adventure the locality had to offer instead of going away to-morrow as he intended, without having methodically pursued the opportunities which come to every man who takes the time to develop them? That morning's adventure, for instance. He went over the last few days, a thing he never did as a rule; he asked himself, for the first time in his life, "Have I made a fool of myself, or was I right to sign?" For the first time in his life, too, something in him seemed to call for reflection. As though guessing his thoughts the Italian stopped him. "I am all the more pleased that it is settled," he said, "because if you had not put your name to the papers there were other people after the deal; a new option had been granted by us to begin at eight this evening, the hour at which yours expired. And I can assure you that the deal would have been concluded in a moment." "May I ask by whom?" asked Lewis. Pastafina hesitated a moment. " ... By the Apostolatos Bank of Trieste." X WHILST waiting for dinner Lewis walked up and down the deserted terrace. A tinge of blue lay over everything. He looked at the sea a thousand feet below him, casting little short waves on to the beach so lazily that each one seemed as if it were going to be the last, after which one expected it to become once for all a large silent lake. A lizard made the dry leaves rustle; the walls, warmed all day by the sun, were growing cold as the evening drew on and creaked like a cooling stove. Along the thread-like paths rising to where he stood, Lewis saw old women returning from the spring carrying their water jars on their heads. The coastline quivered like a rustic script and, underlined by lights, strove to maintain a straight line cut only here and there by harbours. Would he ever see her again?