“You’ll go and speak to him, Denis.  Find out if it’s the right one—­the one you read about in the paper, I mean.  Then come and tell me.”

“Good Lord, Duchess, don’t ask me to do that!  I couldn’t tackle a bishop.  Not an African.  Not unless he has a proper apron on.”

“Be a man, Denis.  He won’t bite a pretty boy like you.”

“What nice things the lady is saying to you,” observed Don Francesco.

“She always does,” he laughed, “when she wants me to do something for her.  I haven’t been on this island long, but I have already found out the Duchess!  You do it, Don Francesco.  He is sure to be the right one.  They get yellow, out there.  Sometimes green.”

Mr. Heard was intercepted on his way to the hotel by the genial priest, and formally presented to the Duchess.  She was more than condescending to this stern and rather tired-looking man; she was gracious.  She made all kinds of polite enquiries, and indicated the various sites and persons of interest; while Don Francesco, he observed, had unaccountably recovered from his sudden attack of bad humour on the steamer.

“And that is where I live,” she said, pointing to a large and sever structure whose walls had plainly not been whitewashed for many long years.  “It’s an old disused convent, built by the Good Duke Alfred.  Wasn’t it, Denis?”

“I really couldn’t say, Duchess.  I never heard of the gentleman.”

“That Good Duke was an unmitigated ruffian,” observed Don Francesco.

“Oh, don’t say that!  Think of all the good he did for the island.  Think of that frieze in the church!  I have acres and acres of rooms to walk about in,” she continued, addressing the bishop.  “All by myself!  I’m quite a hermit, you know.  You will perhaps be able to have a cup of tea with me to-day?”

“Not exactly a hermit,” Denis interposed.

“To take tea with the Duchess is an experience, a revelation,” said Don Francesco in judicial tones.  “I have enjoyed that meal in various parts of the world, but nobody can manage it like she can.  She has the true gift.  You will make tea for us in Paradise, dear lady.  As to luncheon, let me tell you in confidence, Mr. Heard, that my friend Keith, whom you will meet sooner or later, has a most remarkable chef.  What that man of Keith’s cannot cook is not worth eating.”

“How delightful!” replied the bishop, slightly embarrassed.  “And where,” he added, laughing—­“where does one dine?”

“I don not dine.  Madame Steynlin used to give nice evening parties,” he continued reflectively, and with a shad of sadness in his voice.  “Excellent little dinners!  But she is so taken up with Russians just now; they quite monopolise her house.  Down there; do you see, Mr. Heard?  That white villa by the sea, at the end of the promontory?  She is so romantic.  That is why she bought a house which nobody else would have bought at any price.  That little place, all by itself—­it fascinated