‘Ay,’ was the short answer again.
‘Yet you had no need to learn.’
‘Had I not? Your reason, an it please you?’
‘Because you knew already; else had Master Angell not asked astonied what brought you there, and, out of your wont, by day.’
Clerivault made an acrid face.
‘A certain Grecian was heard to remark,’ said he, ‘that he detested a boon-companion with a memory. Are my sins, then, to find me out, and in the name of friendship?’
‘So you own you meant to deceive me?’
‘It would seem so.’
‘Why, Clerivault?’
‘I will tell you, like an honest man. It was not in his Honour’s then design to confess your relationship, and I, who acted as his purse-bearer, judged it advisable to give your sharp infancy no chance scent to nose on. Wherefore, though I had been there many times before, I appeared ignorant.’