church, and that I pay my fines when they are
demanded: Are there new laws, then, against the old faith?"

She spoke with something of real bitterness. It was genuine enough; her
only art lay in her not concealing it; for she was determined to press
her question home. And, in his shrewd, compelling face, she read her
answer even before his words gave it.

"Well, mistress; it was not of you that I meant to speak--so much as of
your friends. They are your friends, not mine. And as your friends, I
thought it to be a kindly action to send them an advertisement. If they
are not careful, there will be trouble."

"At Padley?"

"At Padley, or elsewhere. It is the persons that fall under the law, not
places!"

"But, sir, you are a magistrate; and--"

He sprang up, his face aflame with real wrath.

"Yes, mistress; I am a magistrate: the commission hath come at last,
after six months' waiting. But I was friend to the FitzHerberts before
ever I was a magistrate, and--"

Then she understood; and her heart went out to him. She, too, stood up,
catching at the table with a hiss of pain as she threw her weight on the
bruised foot. He made a movement towards her; but she waved him aside.

"I beg your pardon, Mr. Audrey, with all my heart. I had thought that
you meant harm, perhaps, to my friends and me. But now I see--"

"Not a word more! not a word more!" he cried harshly, with a desperate
kind of gesture. "I shall do my duty none the less when the time
comes--"

"Sir!" she cried out suddenly. "For God's sake do not speak of
duty--there is another duty greater than that. Mr. Audrey--"

He wheeled away from her, with a movement she could not interpret. It
might be uncontrolled anger or misery, equally. And her heart went out
to him in one great flood.

"Mr. Audrey. It is not too late. Your son Robin--"

Then he wheeled again; and his face was distorted with emotion.

"Yes, my son Robin! my son Robin!... How dare you speak of him to me?...
Yes; that is it--my son Robin--my son Robin!"

He dropped into the chair again, and his face fell upon his clasped
hands.

IV

She scarcely knew how circumstances had arranged themselves up to the
time when she found herself riding away again with Alice, while a man of
Mr. Audrey's led her horse. They could not talk freely till he left
them at the place where the stony road turned to a soft track, and it
was safe going once more. Then Alice told her own side of it.

"Yes, my d