The only heritage that she left him was her old servant, the taciturn Florou, whose senile caprices he endured patiently, bearing with her uncertain service and poor cooking.  Florou’s rule, however, rose no higher than the ground-floor.  Her master found peace and quiet in his own room upstairs.  Here he worked; at his table before the window he prepared his lessons, and read his favorite authors.  Here, with pen in hand and his books spread out before him, he liked to look dreamily over the roofs of the other houses at the sea and the hazy outline of the neighboring islands, or to lean back with closed eyelids and look—­at nothing, for he was asleep.

The professor was very fond of his house.  Since he had owned it, he went out but little except to attend to his classes or take his regular walk, and it was always with a new pleasure that he looked upon his walls and opened his door again.

This evening he came home with even greater contentment than usual, as to a haven of refuge from the fancied dangers that lurked in his friend’s eulogy of the plain sister.

“That would be the finishing stroke!” he said aloud, as he carefully folded his coat, put on an old dressing-gown, and tied a silk handkerchief around his head in the shape of a cap, as was his custom every evening.

“That would be the finishing stroke indeed!  To bring a wife here to turn everything upside down; to take me out when I want to stay in, or keep me in when I want to go out; to talk to me when I want quiet; to open the window when I am chilly, because she is too warm; or to close it when I am warm, because she is too cold!” and with that he shut the window.

“Marriage may be all very well for the young; but when a man has reached years of discretion, such folly is not to be thought of.  I have escaped the fetters so far, and I am not going to throw away my liberty at this late day!

[Greek text] Craftily they contrived against my freedom,”

He remembered the woman who had been chosen for him in his youth, as he had seen her the year before while on a visit to his native island,—­ with her gray hair and premature wrinkles,—­surrounded by a troop of children, playing, quarrelling, and crying.

“Thank Heaven,” he said aloud, “I haven’t that load to carry!  I wish the man joy that fills my place!”

Florou interrupted him by opening the door.  She looked about the room in astonishment, but seeing that her master was only talking to himself, she shook her head and said curtly: 

“Supper!”

“Very well, I’m coming;” and he went down to the parlor, which was next to the kitchen and served as dining-room also.  The professor sat down with a good appetite, and when his hunger was appeased, he began to think over the incidents of his walk.  At first his mind dwelt upon the advantages of bachelorhood; then he thought of Mr. Liakos, and felt a sincere pity for his friend.