nly resentment that Marjorie felt: it was a strange sort of
terror as well--a terror of sitting in the house of an apostate--of one
who had freely and deliberately renounced that faith for which she
herself lived so completely; and that it was the father of one whom she
knew as she knew Robin--with whose fate, indeed, her own had been so
intimately entwined--this combined to increase that indefinable fear
that rested on her as she stared round the walls, and sat over the food
and drink that this man provided.

The climax came as they were finishing dinner: for the door from the
hall opened abruptly, and the squire came in. He bowed to the ladies, as
the manner was, straightening his trim, tight figure again defiantly;
asked a civil question or two; directed a servant behind him to bring
the horses to the parlour door in half an hour's time; and then snapped
out the sentence which he was, plainly, impatient to speak.

"Mistress Manners," he said, "I wish to have a word with you privately."

Marjorie, trembling at his presence, turned a wavering face to her
friend; and Alice, before the other could speak, rose up, and went out,
with Janet following.

"Janet--" cried the girl.

"If you please," said the old man, with such a decisive air that she
hesitated. Then she nodded at her maid; and a moment later the door
closed.

III

"I have two matters to speak of," said the squire abruptly, sitting down
in the chair that Alice had left; "the first concerns you closely; and
the other less closely."

She looked at him, summoning all her power to appear at her ease.

He seemed far older than when she had last spoken with him, perhaps five
years ago; and had grown a little pointed beard; his hair, too, seemed
thinner--such of it as she could see beneath the house-cap that he wore;
his face, especially about his blue, angry-looking eyes, was covered
with fine wrinkles, and his hands were clearly the hands of an old man,
at once delicate and sinewy. He was in a dark suit, still with his cloak
upon him; and in low boots. He sat still as upright as ever, turned a
little in his chair, so as to clasp its back with one strong hand.

"Yes, sir?" she said.

"I will begin with the second first. It is of my son Robin: I wish to
know what news you have of him. He hath not written to me this six
months back. And I hear that letters sometimes come to you from him."

Marjorie hesitated.

"He is very well, so far as I know," she s