“And my mother?”
“She is dead. You know she died here, my boy. It is a sad story I will have to tell you, but, at all events, you will have a father, and a name as good as any in England.”
“With that promise I am content,” said Crispin gladly; “as you have brought me up from infancy, I would be indeed ungrateful if I did not trust you to the end.”
“Yet you left me in anger!”
“I think you must blame Caliphronas for that. It was his machinations that caused you to misjudge me, as I misjudged you.”
“Caliphronas has been the bad genius of us all,” said Justinian decisively; “but now, thank heaven, he is gone, and will trouble us no more.”
“My faith!” cried Maurice lightly, “he will trouble us a good deal, if he brings Alcibiades here.”
“Ah, that is open war! I do not mind that. It was his hidden treachery to which I referred.”
“By the way,” said Roylands meditatively, “I suppose that Caliphronas thinks you have untold treasures in this Acropolis?”
“He does; and that is one of the reasons he desires to plunder Melnos. Fortunately, all my money derived from the island is in London.”