of sobbing, and saw one of the white-
capped, short-petticoated femmes de chambre kneeling at Naomi's
feet, ejaculating, "Oh, take me! take me, mademoiselle! Madame is
an angel of goodness, but I cannot go on living a lie. I shall do
something dreadful."

"Poor Suzanne! poor Suzanne!" Naomi was answering: "I will do what
I can, I will see if it is possible--"

They started at the sound of the step, Suzanne rising to her feet in
terror, but Naomi, signing to Anne and saying, "It is only
Mademoiselle Woodford, a good Protestant, Suzanne. Go now; I will
see what can be done; I know my aunt would like to send a maid with
us."

Then as Suzanne went out with her apron to her eyes, and Anne would
have apologised, she said, "Never mind; I must have told you, and
asked your help. Poor Suzanne, she is one of the Rotrous, an old
race of Huguenot peasants whom my aunt always protected; she would
protect any one, but these people had a special claim because they
sheltered our great-grandmother, Lady Walwyn, when she fled after
the S. Barthelemi. When the Edict of Nantes was revoked, the two
brothers fled. I believe she helped them, and they got on board
ship, and brought a token to my father; but the old mother was
feeble and imbecile, and could not move, and the monks and the
dragoons frightened and harassed this poor wench into what they
called conforming. When the mother died, my aunt took Suzanne and
taught her, and thought she was converted; and indeed if all Papists
were like my aunt it would not be so hard to become one."

"Oh yes! I know others like that."

"But this poor Suzanne, knowing that she only was converted out of
terror, has always had an uneasy conscience, and the sight of me has
stirred up everything. She says, though I do not know if it be
true, that she was fast drifting into bad habits, when finding my
Bible, though it was English and she could not read it, seems to
have revived everything, and recalled the teaching of her good old
father and pastor, and now she is wild to go to England with us."

"You will take her?" exclaimed Anne.

"Of course I will. Perhaps that is what I was sent here for. I
will ask her of my aunt, and I think she will let me have her. You
will keep her secret, Anne."

"Indeed I will."

Madame de Bellaise granted Suzanne to her niece without difficulty,
evidently guessing the truth, but knowing the peril of the situation
too well to make any inquiry. Perhaps sh