“Go, Romola—go home and rest. These fears may be only big ugly shadows of something very little and harmless. Even traitors must see their interest in betraying; the rats will run where they smell the cheese, and there is no knowing yet which way the scent will
He paused, and turned away his eyes from her with an air of abstraction, till, with a slow shrug, he added—
“As for warnings, they are of no use to me, child. I enter into no plots, but I never forsake my colours. If I march abreast with obstinate men, who will rush on guns and pikes, I must share the consequences.
Let us say no more about that. I have not many years left at the bottom of my sack for them to rob me of. Go, child; go home and rest.”
He put his hand on her head again caressingly, and she could not help clinging to his