sant rooms here, and music to cheer you, too," he said.
"I understand that you are often here, Mr. Babington."

Anthony explained that he found them convenient and very secure.

"Roberts is a prudent landlord," he said.

Father Campion nodded.

"He knows his own business, which is what few landlords do, in these
degenerate days; and he knows nothing at all of his guests'. In that he
is even more of an exception."

His eyes twinkled delightfully at the ladies.

"And so," he said, "God blesses him in those who use his house."

They talked for a few minutes in this manner. Father Campion spoke of
the high duty that lay on all country ladies to make themselves
acquainted with the sights of the town; and spoke of three or four of
these. Her Grace, of course, must be seen; that was the greatest sight
of all. They must make an opportunity for that; and there would surely
be no difficulty, since her Grace liked nothing better than to be looked
at. And they must go up the river by water, if the weather allowed, from
the Tower to Westminster; not from Westminster to the Tower, since that
was the way that traitors came, and no good Catholic could, even in
appearance, be a traitor. And, if they pleased, he would himself be
their guide for a part of their adventures. He was to lie hid, he told
them; and he knew no better way to do that than to flaunt as boldly as
possible in the open ways.

"If I lay in my room," said he, "with a bolt drawn, I would soon have
some busy fellow knocking on the door to know what I did there. But if I
could but dine with her Grace, or take an hour with Mr. Topcliffe, I
should be secure for ever."

Marjorie glanced shyly towards Alice, as if to ask a question. (She was
listening, it seemed to her, with every nerve in her tired body.) The
priest saw the glance.

"Mr. Topcliffe, madam? Well; let us say he is a dear friend of the
Lieutenant of the Tower, and has, I think, lodgings there just now. And
he is even a friend of Catholics, too--to such, at least, as desire a
heavenly crown."

"He is an informer and a tormentor!" broke in Anthony harshly.

"Well, sir; let us say that he is very loyal to the letter of the law;
and that he presides over our Protestant bed of Procrustes."

"The--" began Marjorie, emboldened by the kindness of the priest's
voice.

"The bed of Procrustes, madam, was a bed to which all who lay upon it
had to be conformed. Those that were too long were made short; and th