CHAPTER II.


Pisistratus.--"How came you to know we had stayed in the town?"

Vivian.--"Do you think I could remain where you left me? I wandered
out, wandered hither. Passing at dawn through yon streets, I saw the
hostlers loitering by the gates of the yard, overheard them talk, and so
knew you were all at the inn,--all!" He sighed heavily.

Pisistratus.--"Your poor father is very ill. Oh, cousin, how could you
fling from you so much love?"

Vivian.--"Love! his! my father's!"

Pisistratus.--"Do you really not believe, then, that your father loved
you?"

Vivian.--"If I had believed it, I had never left him. All the gold of
the Indies had never bribed me to leave my mother."

Pisistratus.--"This is indeed a strange misconception of yours. If we
can remove it, all may be well yet. Need there now be any secrets
between us? [persuasively]. Sit down, and tell me all, cousin."

After some hesitation, Vivian complied; and by the clearing of his brow
and the very tone of his voice I felt sure that he was no longer seeking
to disguise the truth. But as I afterwards learned the father's tale as
well as now the son's, so, instead of repeating Vivian's words, which--