he answered, but with a touch of hesitation.

"Saving our duty to the King?"

"If need should come for that reservation, yes," said he gravely.

"And saving," said I, "the liberties of the Kingdom and the safety of
the Reformed Religion--if need should come for these reservations, Mr
Darrell," and I laughed to see the frown gather again on his brow. But
he made no reply, being unable to trust his self-control or answer my
light banter in its own kind. He left me with no more than a shake of
his head and a wave of his hand; and although we parted thus in amity
and with no feelings save of kindness for one another, I knew that
henceforth there must be a difference in our relations; the days of
confidence were gone.

The recognition of my loss weighed little with me. The diffidence born
of inexperience and of strangeness to London and the Court was wearing
away; the desire for another's arm to lean on and another's eyes to see
with gave way before a young man's pride in his own arm's strength and
the keenness of his own vision. There was sport afoot; aye, for me in
those days all things were sport, even the high disputes of Churches or
of Kingdoms. We look at the world through our own glasses; little as it
recks of us, it is to us material and opportunity; there in the dead of
night I wove a dream wherein the part of hero was played by Simon Dale,
with Kings and Dukes to bow him on and off the stage and Christendom to
make an audience. These dream-doings are brave things: I pity the man
who performs none of them; for in them you may achieve without labour,
enjoy without expense, triumph without cruelty, aye, and sin mightily
and grandly with never a reckoning for it. Yet do not be a mean villain
even in your dreaming, for that sticks to you when you awake.

I had supposed myself alone to be out of bed and Jonah Wall to have
slunk off in fear of my anger. But now my meditations were interrupted
by his entrance. He crept up to me in an uneasy fashion, but seemed to
take courage when I did not break into abuse, but asked him mildly why
he had not sought rest and what he wanted with me. His first answer was
to implore me to protect him from Mr Darrell's wrath; through Phineas
Tate, he told me timidly, he had found grace, and he could deny him
nothing; yet, if I bade him, he would not admit him again.

"Let him come," said I carelessly. "Besides, we shall not be long here.
For you and I are going on a journey, Jonah."