se of Dick Sampson's furious face. Then the group
bore back, fighting, into the inn door; the Dethick servant leapt off
his horse, leaving it in some fellow's hands, and vanished up the step;
there was a rush of the crowd after him, and then the way was clear in
front, over the little bridge that spanned Bramble brook.

When she drew level with Alice, she saw her friend's face, pale and
agitated.

"It is the first time I have ever been cried at," she said. "Come; we
are nearly home. There is St. Peter's spire."

"Shall we not--?" began Marjorie.

"No, no" (and the pale face tightened suddenly). "My fellows will give
them a lesson. The crowd is on our side as yet."

IV

As they rode in under the archway that led in beside the great doors of
Babington House, three or four grooms ran forward at once. It was plain
that their coming was looked far with some eagerness.

Alice's manner seemed curiously different from that of the quiet woman
who had sat so patiently beside Marjorie in the manor among the hills: a
certain air of authority and dignity sat on her now that she was back in
her own place.

"Is Mrs. FitzHerbert here?" she asked from the groom who helped her to
the ground.

"Yes, mistress; she came from the inn this morning, and--"

"Well?"

"She is in a great taking, mistress. She would eat nothing, they said."

Alice nodded.

"You had best be off to the inn," she said, with a jerk of her head. "A
London fellow insulted us just now, and Sampson and Mallow--"

She said no more. The man who held her horse slipped the reins into the
hands of the younger groom who stood by him, and was away and out of the
court in an instant. Marjorie smiled a little, astonished at her own
sense of exultation. The blows were not to be all one side, she
perceived. Then she followed Alice into the house.

As they came through into the hall by the side-door that led through
from the court where they had dismounted, a figure was plainly visible
in the dusky light, going to and fro at the further end, with a quick,
nervous movement. The figure stopped as they advanced, and then darted
forward, crying out piteously:

"Ah! you have come, thank God! thank God! They will not let me see him."

"Hush! hush!" said Alice, as she caught her in her arms.

"Mr. Bassett has been here," moaned the figure, "and he says it is
Topcliffe himself who has come down on the matter.... He says he is the
greatest devil of them all; and Thoma