There was another long pause. This time Christopher put out his hand and laid it on Aymer’s.
“There isn’t any more. We followed up the clue and found you. My father made another appeal to 321 Peter on behalf of his unknown son, and Peter declared the subject was not discussable: so I kept you. I vowed I’d never stand between your own father and you, but also that I’d never put out a hand to bring you together. That visit you paid him, Christopher, was the blackest time I’ve had since the day I realised what I’d done. I thought I had got over my jealousy, and I had not.”
Christopher leant over him and gripped his hands.
“Cæsar,” he said in a breathless low voice, looking him straight in the eyes. “Cæsar, there was no need of that then—there never has been, nor could be. I have no father at all if it be not you.”
CHAPTER XXIX
“It does not seem to me a very great thing to ask in the face of things.”
Mr. Saunderson dangled his eyeglasses and regarded Christopher with a dubious air.
“I want three days to consider the matter,” continued Christopher impatiently. “Where is the difficulty? You don’t seem to remember you are asking me to give up my chosen life and work and take on a job that I loathe.”