“Yes, just a faint glimpse of you. Oh, father, father, it wasn’t safe for you to come back!”
“No, not very, my boy; but I couldn’t stop away any longer. How is the dear one?”
“Quite well—only she looks thin and pale, father. She’s fretting so because you are away.”
“Hah!” ejaculated Sir Robert, in a long-drawn sigh. “I felt that she must be, and that helped to draw me back. Heaven bless her!—Frank lad, as you have found me out— But stop, did you tell her you had seen me?”
“I haven’t seen her since, father; and if I had, I shouldn’t have dared. What would she think?”
“Bullets and bayonets, or worse, my boy. Quite right; spoken like the brave, thoughtful lad you are growing. But it’s very hard, Frank. Don’t you think you could manage to bring her over here—say this time to-morrow evening?”
“Yes, father, easily,” said Frank.
“My boy. Oh, if you knew how I long to see her again!”
“Yes, father,” said Frank bitterly, “I could bring her, but for what?—to see you arrested for coming back. It would be madness. There are spies everywhere. I had to be so careful to get round here without being followed.”
Sir Robert groaned as he stood there in the darkness, holding his son by his arms in a firm grip.