The Journalist was silent for a moment, and them began to laugh quietly.
"It was certainly an inverted form of holding to ransom," he said.
"If you had known my aunt," said the Wine Merchant, "you would have wondered that they didn't put the figure higher."
"I realise the temptation. Did your uncle succumb to it?"
"Well, you see, he had to think of others as well as himself. For the family to have gone back into the Crispina thraldom after having tasted the delights of liberty would have been a tragedy, and there were even wider considerations to be taken into account. Since his bereavement he had unconsciously taken up a far bolder and more initiatory line in public affairs, and his popularity and influence had increased correspondingly. From being merely a strong man in the political
