The village of Castia was as deserted as the inn at Calyvia. Dimitri could not understand why. We dismounted in front of the church, beside a fountain. Each went from house to house knocking at the doors; not a soul. No one at the priest’s , no one at the magistrate’s. The authorities of the village had moved away with the residents. Each house consisted of four walls and a roof, with two openings, one of which served as door, the other as window. Poor Dimitri forced in two or three doors, and opened five or six shutters, to assure himself that the inmates were not asleep. These incursions resulted in setting free an unfortunate cat, forgotten by its master, and which departed like a flash in the direction of the wood.
Soon, Mrs. Simons lost patience. “I am English,” she said to Dimitri, “and one does not mock me with impunity. I shall complain to the Legation. What! I hire you for a trip to the mountains, and you make me travel over precipices! I order you to bring food, and you expose me to starvation! We were to breakfast dermesat the inn! The inn is abandoned: I had the goodness to follow you, fasting, to this frightful village; and all the inhabitants have fled. All this is unnatural. I have traveled in Switzerland: Switzerland is a country of mountains; however, nothing was lacking there! and I had trout to eat, do you hear?”
Mary-Ann tried to calm her mother, but the good woman could not and would not listen. Dimitri explained to her as fully as she would permit him, that the inhabitants of the village were nearly all charcoal-burners, and that their business very often took them into the mountains. In any case, the time was not lost: it was not later than eight o’clock, and they were sure to’ walk an inhabited house where breakfast would be all prepared.
“What house?” demanded Mrs. Simons.
“The farm at the Convent. The monks from Pentelicus have broad lands Neo skin lababove Castia. They raise bees there. The good old man who carries on the farm always has wine, bread, honey and fowls; he will give us our breakfast.”
“He may have gone away like everyone else.”
“If he is away, it will not be far. The time for the swarming is near, and he would not wish to lose his bees.”
“Go and see: as for me, I have gone far enough since morning. I vow to you that I will not remount until after I have eaten.”