ld get no more from
him than that the prisoner was a known and confessed recusant, and had
been laid by the heels according to orders, it was believed, sent down
by the Council. Then, Dick had ridden slowly away till he had turned
the corner, and then, hot foot for Padley.

"And I heard the fellow say to one of his company that an informer was
coming down from London on purpose to deal with Mr. Thomas."

Marjorie felt a sudden pang; for she had never forgotten the one she had
set eyes on in the Tower.

"His name?" she said breathlessly. "Did you hear his name?"

"It was Topcliffe, mistress," said Dick indifferently. "The other called
it out."

* * * * *

Marjorie sat silent. Not only had the blow fallen more swiftly than she
would have thought possible, but it was coupled with a second of which
she had never dreamed. That it was this man, above all others, that
should have come; this man, who stood to her mind, by a mere chance, for
all that was most dreadful in the sinister forces arrayed against
her--this brought misery down on her indeed. For, besides her own
personal reasons for terror, there was, besides, the knowledge that the
bringing of such a man at all from London on such business meant that
the movement beginning here in her own county was not a mere caprice.

She sat silent then--seeing once more before her the wide court of the
Tower, the great keep opposite, and in the midst that thin figure moving
to his hateful business.... And she knew now, in this instant, as never
before, that the chief reason for her terror was that she had coupled in
her mind her own friend Robin with the thought of this man, as if by
some inner knowledge that their lives must cross some day--a knowledge
which she could neither justify nor silence. Thank God, at least, that
Robin was still safe in Rheims!

II

She sent him off after a couple of hours' rest, during which once more
he had told his story to Mistress Alice, with a letter to Mr. Thomas's
wife, who, no doubt, would have followed her lord to Derby. She had gone
apart with Alice, while Dick ate and drank, to talk the affair out, and
had told her of Topcliffe's presence, at which news even the placid face
of her friend looked troubled; but they had said nothing more on the
point, and had decided that a letter should be written in Mistress
Babington's name, offering Mrs. FitzHerbert the hospitality of Babington
House, and any other