‘Oh, he is all right at heart; never fear him. But what was the promise?’
‘I will not tell till it is claimed. I will not be the man to shame my own nation and the blood of the gods. But if that drunken Prefect recollects it—why let him recollect it. And what is more, the monk-boy who was here to-night—’
‘Ah, what a well-grown lad that is wasted!’
‘More than suspects—and if his story is true, I more than suspect too—that Pelagia is his sister.’
‘His sister! But what of that?’
‘He wants, of course, to carry her off and make a nun of her.’
‘You would not let him do such a thing to the poor child?’
‘If folks get in my way, Smid, they must go down. So much the worse for them: but old Wulf was never turned back yet by man or beast, and he will not be now.’
‘After all, it will serve the hussy right. But Amalric?’
‘Out of sight, out of mind.’