, the little group which, far back in the kitchen
entrance, peeped and rustled, the men at the gate behind, even the boys
in the path--all these held their tongues for interest and a kind of
fear. Drama was in the air--the tragedy of seeing the squire come back
from church for the first time, bearing himself as he always did,
resolute and sturdy, yet changed in his significance after a fashion of
which none of these simple hearts had ever dreamed.

So, again in silence, he went up the court, knowing that eyes were upon
him, yet showing no sign that he knew it; he went up the steps with the
same assured air, and disappeared into the hall.

* * * * *

Then the spell broke up and the bustle began, for it was only half an
hour to dinner and guests were coming. First Dick came out, slashing to
the door behind him, and strode out to the gate. He was still in his
boots, for he had ridden to Padley and back since early morning with a
couple of the maids and the stable-boy. He went to the gate of the
court, the group dissolving as he came, and shut it in their faces. A
noise of talking came out of the kitchen windows and the clash of a
saucepan: the maids' heads vanished from the upper windows.

Even as Dick shut the gate he heard the sound of horses' hoofs down by
the porter's lodge. The justices were coming--the two whose names he had
heard with amazement last week, as the last corroboration of the
incredible rumour of his master's defection. For these were a couple of
magistrates--harmless men, indeed, as regarded their hostility to the
old Faith--yet Protestants who had sat more than once on the bench in
Derby to hear cases of recusancy. Old Mrs. Marpleden had told him they
were to come, and that provision must be made for their horses--Mrs.
Marpleden, the ancient housekeeper of the manor, who had gone to school
for a while with the Benedictine nuns of Derby in King Henry's days. She
had shaken her head and eyed him, and then had suffered three or four
tears to fall down her old cheeks.

Well, they were coming, so Dick must open the gate again, and pull the
bell for the servants; and this he did, and waited, hat in hand.

Up the little straight road they came, with a servant or two behind
them--the two harmless gentlemen, chattering as they rode; and Dick
loathed them in his heart.

"The squire is within?"

"Yes, sir."

They dismounted, and Dick held their stirrups.

"He has been to