‘He is my father!’
‘Well?’
‘You must save him! You shall, I say!’ And she seized Raphael’s arm in the imperiousness of her passion.
He shrugged his shoulders: but felt, he knew not why, marvellously inclined to obey her.
‘I may as well do this as anything else, having nothing else to do. Whither now, sir?’
‘Whither you will. Our troops are disgraced, our eagles taken. We are your prisoners by right of war. We follow you.’
‘Oh, my fortune! A new responsibility! Why cannot I stir, without live animals, from fleas upward, attaching themselves to me? Is it not enough to have nine blind puppies at my back, and an old brute at my heels, who will persist in saving my life, that I must be burdened over and above with a respectable elderly rebel and his daughter? Why am I not allowed by fate to care for nobody but myself? Sir, I give you both your freedom. The world is wide enough for us all. I really ask no ransom.’
‘You seem philosophically disposed, my friend.’
‘I? Heaven forbid! I have gone right through that slough, and come out sheer on the other side. For sweeping the last lingering taint of it out of me, I have to thank, not sulphur and exorcisms, but your soldiers and their morning’s work. Philosophy is superfluous in a world where all are fools.’
‘Do you include yourself under that title?’