res, and I was on the terrace and caught the words.'

'I am in your hands completely,' said he, in the same calm voice; 'but I
repeat my words: I'll not run away.'

'That is, because you trust to my honour.'

'It is exactly so--because I trust to your honour.'

'But how if I were to have strong convictions in opposition to all you were
doing--how if I were to believe that all you intended was a gross wrong and
a fearful cruelty?'

'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 fr