He had told his wife the truth when he informed her of Van Loo's fears of being reminded of their former intimacy; but he had not told her how its discontinuance after they had left Heavy Tree Hill had affected her son, and how he still cherished his old admiration for that specious rascal.

Nor had he told her how this had stung him, through his own selfish greed of the boy's affection.

Yet now that it was possible that she had met Van Loo that evening, she might have become aware of Van Loo's power over her child.

How she would exult, for all her pretended hatred of Van Loo! How, perhaps, they had plotted together! How Van Loo might have become aware of the place where his son was kept, and have been bribed by the mother to tell her! He stopped in a whirl of giddy fancies.

His strong common sense in all other things had been hitherto proof against such idle dreams or suggestions; but the very strength of his parental love and jealousy had awakened in him at last the terrors of imagination.
His first impulse had been to seek his wife, regardless of discovery or consequences, at Hymettus, where she had said she was going.