“What displeases you, sir?” demanded his son after a little pause; “it’s no use pretending there’s nothing wrong; you only do that when you want to say something you think won’t be acceptable.”
“Well, then, Aymer, I say this: Christopher is your concern. I don’t doubt your power to manage him, but I can speak of yourself, and I tell you it’s a very bad thing to live with an unsatisfied suspicion; particularly bad for you. If you don’t clear this up you will never feel quite at ease with the boy. It is so already, is it not?”
Aymer admitted reluctantly that it was indeed the case.
“Don’t let anything stand between you, Aymer. I am thinking of you, of course,” he added hastily.
“Are you sure you are not thinking of yourself?” returned his son, half laughing, half ruefully; and his father flushed a little.
“Perhaps I was,” he said humbly. “It would worry me if you were not happy with him.”
Aymer laughed outright at that and assured him he knew how to make allowances for his well-known selfishness. But he took his advice and grappled with the difficulty next afternoon. Christopher was mending a rod, seated on the floor as usual.
“We’ve not found that sovereign,” said Cæsar abruptly.
Christopher looked up quickly, and then went on with his work after a brief “Oh!”
“Did you take it, Christopher?”