‘Still you would not betray me. You would say, “This man is an enthusiast--he imagines scores of impossible things--but, at least, he is not a self-seeker--a fool possibly, but not a knave. It would be hard to hang him.”’ ‘So it would. I have just thought _that_.’ ‘And then you might reason thus: “How will it serve the other cause to send one poor wretch to the scaffold, where there are so many just as deserving of it?”’ ‘And are there many?’ ‘I should say close on two millions at home here, and some hundred thousand in America.’ ‘And if you be as strong as you say, what craven creatures you must be not to assert your own convictions.’ ‘So we are--I’ll not deny it--craven creatures; but remember this, mademoiselle, we are not all like-minded. Some of us would be satisfied with small concessions, some ask for more, some demand all; and as the Government higgles with some, and hangs the others, they mystify us all, and end by confounding us.’ ‘That is to say, you are terrified.’ ‘Well, if you like that word better, I’ll not quarrel about it.’ ‘I wonder how men as irresolute ever turn to rebellion. When our people set out for Crete, they went in another spirit to meet the enemy.’ ‘Don’t be too sure of that. The boldest fellows in that exploit were the liberated felons: they fought with desperation, for they had left the hangman behind.’ ‘How dare you defame a great people!’ cried she angrily. ‘I was with them, mademoiselle. I saw them and fought amongst them; and to prove it, I will speak modern Greek with you, if you like it.’ ‘Oh! do,’ said she. ‘Let me hear those noble sounds again, though I shall be sadly at a loss to answer you. I have been years and years away from Athens.’ ‘I know that. I know your story from one who loved to talk of you, all unworthy as he was of such a theme.’ ‘And who was this?’ ‘Atlee--Joe Atlee, whom you saw here some months ago.’ ‘I remember him,’ said she thoughtfully. ‘He was here, if I mistake not, with that other friend of yours you have so strangely escaped from to-day.’ ‘Mr. Walpole?’ ‘Yes, Mr. Walpole; to meet whom would not have involved _you_, at least, in any contrariety.’ ‘Is this a question, sir? Am I to suppose your curiosity asks an answer here?’ ‘I am not so bold; but I own my suspicions have mastered my discretion, and, seeing you here this morning, I did think you did not care to meet him.’ ‘Well, sir, you were right. I am not sure that _my_ reasons for avoiding him were exactly as strong as _yours_, but they sufficed for _me_.’