Pelleus looked for more opportunities to search the estate for testimonies about his father, though he met obstructions at every turn.

  Agon was spending increasing amounts of time at home, and seemed always to hover around in the vicinity of Pelleus whenever there was a lull in the day's activities. At first Pelleus thought this was strictly precautionary on Agon's part, but when his host began to strike up conversations during these "chance meetings" as he called them, it was clear he considered them a pleasure in their own right. He would probe Pelleus with questions about his reading and his views on philosophy, often on the pretext of furthering the girls' education, for he would use Chrysanthe as the necessary third party to these conferences.

  In fact, it was only in those hours he'd allotted to seeing Marinus that Pelleus was truly free with his time, with the unfortunate consequence that he started forgoing his friend's company in favour of continuing his secret investigation. Marinus showed up like clockwork for these regular meetings, though he was not at all upset when Pelleus failed to appear. By now he had someone else on his mind.

  After their last encounter, Marinus and Chrysanthe had by some unspoken agreement sought each other again at the same time and place. Matters had been somewhat complicated by Hippolyta, who had forbidden Chrysanthe from visiting the orchard, setting Mopsy on guard at the gate while the girl walked in the garden. Marinus knew nothing of this ban at first, and passed a lonely hour wandering the orchard with weary steps, whipping up his head at every rustle or creak from the surrounding trees. Just as he was on the brink of giving up, a missile shot over bushes to his right and thwacked him hard on the head. His vision swam and he saw stars, stumbling around like Goliath after his run-in with David. In the midst of these agonies his eyes lit upon a stone on the ground – the very stone which had raised the great lump now forming on the back of his head – and on impulse he picked it up. He was about to hurl it away in disgust when he noticed a note had been attached with some embroidery thread. Marinus's heart leapt to see it was written in a woman's hand, but the message was brief: east wall - beech tree.

  "No more, perhaps, than could fit on this scrap of paper, but not all that enlightening..." he murmured, being rather dense, (the stone had given him a nasty bit of concussion after all). But soon he understood this vague address to be the new trysting place for him and and Chrysanthe, and he rejoiced in his heart.

  That very moment he dashed out of the orchard and into the fields bordering Agon's land. With the sun as his guide, he struck east, and wandered until he found the garden wall that encircled the Hermenides house.

  Knowledge of botany and tree-lore was more general in those days than it is in our own, and Marinus knew a beech tree when he saw it. How could he miss it, when its bough shot out at an oblique angle over the wall, and its limbs stretched out like signposts into Onesimus's land? A carrying whisper confirmed that he had found the right place, and drawing close to the wall Marinus saw that one of the stones had been removed at around head height, leaving a gap as large as a letterbox that framed a pair of beautiful brown eyes.

  "Marinus!" Chrysanthe called out.

  "You are even more resourceful that I gave you credit for, miss," Marinus said with a slavish grin, "secret notes; a hole in the wall, how do you do it?"

  "Oh, that – I read it in one of father's romances," the girl said, tossing back her hair proudly. Most of her store of wisdom had been learned by this method, for lack of life experience.

  Now that they were face to face, each of them felt a little shy, and lapsed into a silence lasting some moments. There seemed to be something on both their minds, that they did not know how to bring into speech. Then Marinus, being less influenced by the artifice and expectations of love-literature, broke the silence first with earnest simplicity.

  "Chrysanthe, you know it is much greater joy to me to see you than my companion, Pusanella. Or former companion, I should say. Do not worry: she has relieved me of that obligation that has hitherto bound me to her, and given me her blessing to seek your love."

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  "She has?" Chrysanthe said, raising two arched eyebrows. That is obliging of her! she thought, never having read of so amicable an end to an engagement in any of her books. Usually these things ended in bloodshed, or a spurned lover throwing herself on her own funeral pyre. She was almost disappointed.

  "She saw the wisdom of your words to me, earlier," Marinus said, "and knows full well that my heart has many days hence belonged to another: to you."

  Chrysanthe flushed red and she could not suppress a smile that was discernible even through the hole in the wall.

  "And so have I fallen for you, Marinus!" she cried, thrusting a hand through the wall which Marinus grasped tenderly in his own and covered it in kisses.

  "Oh, Chrysanthe!" he cried in ecstasy. "Would that this hateful, moulding old wall were not in the way, and I could embrace you entirely."

  In truth Chrysanthe knew half a dozen shady spots which could have afforded this opportunity, but none of them had featured in the old tales. Now tears filled her eyes at how poignantly myth had come to life, thanks to her choice of meeting-place.

  "And I would willingly give myself to you, sweet Marinus, but look you, how shall we be married, my darling, if my lord forbids it?" she said.

  Her mind works quickly! Marinus thought, though he was pleased to hear her talk this way. It showed fidelity, he thought.

  "How could he deny us the desire of our hearts?" he asked, "Agon is a just and honourable man, I am sure he will give me his blessing."

  "Oh no, Marinus, he is a tyrant! We must be gone from hence, and make our own way in the wide world," she protested.

  This was the first sticking point in their relationship. For now that he had made her family's acquaintance, Marinus had no wish to steal off with Chrysanthe by stealth.

  She must have felt his hold on her hand slacken, for she spoke again in a voice full of tender concern.

  "Take heart, my darling, though they may pursue us by land and by sea, like the very furies themselves, by our love and wits we shall triumph over them!"

  Marinus had to admire her courage – he felt his own rapidly deserting him, and his heart quailed at the thought of crossing Agon, robbing him of the apple of his eye. Still more his conscience rebelled against the thought of wronging one who had showed him so much kindness.

  "Well, let us think this through first, before we get into anything so rash," he cautioned her, sounding more and more like Pelleus by the moment, and despising himself for it.

  "Oh, but we must make haste, for I am soon away from here, to relatives in Megara, on the other side of the island!" she said, gripping his hand all the tighter. She was stronger than she looked, and Marinus felt the circulation cutting off from his fingers. He looked at her, uncomprehending.

  "There lies our chance!" she went on. "When I am safely in my cousins' house in Megara, you can come for me, and together we may elope without father catching us! There are ports and ships in Megara; we could book passage to wherever we liked."

  Her eyes shined with such enthusiasm that Marinus's heart ached. Her plan, however, appalled him, and he had no idea how to let her down gently without cooling that enthusiasm at the same time. But for want of any wit, he answered her honestly.

  "Chrysanthe, I am a man of honour," said he, without a trace of irony. "I cannot violate your father's hospitality so callously, for all that my heart desires to be wedded to you. Come now," he continued, for her eyes had fallen dolefully, "if your love is as true as mine – which I doubt not in the least – a brief separation will only strengthen these bonds between us."

  She dwelled on this counsel a while, then concurred.

  "You are right, Marinus; besides, I had rather you did not fall into my cousins' hands. My mother's side of the family are many times more ruthless and passionate than my father. I shudder to think what torments they would prepare for the man who carried me off, willingly or no."

  Marinus felt a shiver run down his spine, and thanked heaven for his cowardice.

  This matter settled for the time being, they passed the rest of their meeting in an exchange of sweet nothings and such caresses as the old wall would allow.