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instance, who doesn’t always tell the truth.’
    ‘Nikos is different! He is loyal and—and caring and he has always been our friend,’ Anna protested.
    ‘And always will be, I hope.’ Dorothy smoothed her hair. ‘Am I looking respectable?’ she asked, dismissing further argument. ‘Will Andreas see a difference in me, do you think?’
    Anna put a protective arm about her thin shoulders. ‘It isn’t so long ago,’ she said gently, ‘and you haven’t changed at all.’
    At that hour of the morning they were alone in the sunny residents’ lounge, some of their guests still at breakfast in the adjoining dining-room, the others in their respective rooms preparing to go out for the day to the various archaeological sites in other parts of the island or to spend the long, sun-filled hours relaxing on a sandy beach of their choice. There was so much to do on this magic island of her birth, Anna thought, and soon they would be able to accommodate their guests with a swimming-pool of their own out there on the terrace at the side of the house. It had been her ambition for a long time, but now she thought that they might just manage it for the opening of the summer season, if all went well. It was almost an essential of hotel life these days, although the sea was there, right on their doorstep.
    ‘I’ve spoken to Nikos about the pool, by the way,’ she said, ‘and he thought it was an excellent idea. It wouldn’t inconvenience us at all since it would have to be next to Candy’s Place where there’s plenty of room.’
    ‘I can’t see why people can’t swim in the sea,’ Dorothy said. ‘You did, and Nikos and Andreas. There wasn’t much talk of a swimming-pool then, or water-skiing or snorkelling, for that matter.’
    ‘All the big hotels have these amenities,’ Anna pointed out. ‘I don’t mean that we should have them for that reason. We could never hope to compete with the big hotels and I wouldn’t want to. Mrs Calder-Bates told me yesterday that was why they came back to us so often— because we were a small, intimate concern and she felt as if she was coming home.’
    Dorothy nodded. ‘That’s what we wanted in the first place,’ she agreed, ‘and I wouldn’t like to see it vastly changed, but I suppose we do have to move with the times. Did Nikos advise you about the speed-boat?’ Anna flushed. ‘He offered to pay for it.’ She drew in a deep breath. ‘Of course, I couldn’t accept that, so he will hire out his own boat from the mole during the summer. One of the boys—Hannibal or Paris—will drive it when he can’t be here himself.’
    ‘I don’t know what we would have done without Nikos,’ Dorothy mused. ‘He has treated us like his own family and he never left the island.’
    ‘He had something to stay for,’ Anna said slowly, ‘with all those rich orchards and vineyards he will one day inherit, and acres of carob trees up in the mountains.’
    ‘He works hard,' Dorothy reminded her, ‘and he is unfailingly kind.’
    Her eyes went beyond the open glass doors which separated the lounge from the entrance hall, searching for their unexpected visitor.
    ‘He may have changed his mind,' Anna reflected. ‘I didn’t encourage him.’
    ‘No! He’s here!’ Dorothy’s pale cheeks were suddenly tinged with pink. ‘He has not changed so very much.’
    The man who had come in through the double doors paused for a moment at the reception desk as if he were taking stock of the changes they had made, and then he came steadily towards them, holding out both hands.
    ‘Mama!’ he said.
    ‘It is good to see you, at last.’ Dorothy Rossides went quickly towards him. ‘Andreas!’
    He bent his dark head, kissing her on both cheeks. ‘You have been ill,’ he said. ‘What have you been doing with yourself, working so hard?'
    Dorothy shook her head. ‘I am better now. Hard work, as you know, never killed anyone. I have a stupid heart, that is all. It lets me down at times,’ she