"It gives these people a claim on you," she said.

"I did not come here to run up an hotel bill, but to see Pompeii.

Pompeii I demand to see." The players on the flute and mandolin looked at Mrs.Portheris consideringly and then strolled away, and the guide, with a sorrowful glance at the landlady, put on his hat.

"I can explain you everything," he said with an inflection that placed the responsibility for remaining in ignorance upon our own heads, but Mrs.Portheris waved him away with her fan.

"No," she said.