“Do you mean that?” cried Waller excitedly.
“Of course I do. I never had a friend like you before, and I never knew what it was to lead a boy’s life. Out there in France I never heard about anything else hardly but politics, and getting back the crown for the Stuarts.”
“Then you really don’t want to go?” cried Waller.
“No; but I must go, and the sooner the better. You know what I must feel.”
“Yes,” said Waller sadly, “but—”
“Oh, it must come to an end. I lie awake of a night wondering how it is that your servants have not found it all out before, with you bringing up all that I have to eat and drink. I fancy sometimes that they must know.”
“But they don’t,” said Waller grimly.
“But how have you managed?”
“Oh, somehow,” said Waller, with a half-laugh. “It’s been mostly done by stealing.”
“By stealing! Nonsense! You couldn’t be a thief.”