h must be proportionate to the influence he
already had won throughout the country by his years of labour;
entreating, finally, when the trustworthiness of the report had been
forced upon her at last, that she herself might be allowed to go and
see him and speak with him in prison.

This, however, had been strongly refused by her counsellors just now.
They had declared that her help was invaluable; that the amazing manner
in which her little retired house on the moors had so far evaded grave
suspicion rendered it one of the greatest safeguards that the hunted
Catholics possessed; that the work she was doing by her organization of
messengers and letters must not be risked, even for the sake of a matter
like this....

She had given in at last. But her spirit seemed broken altogether.

II

"There is one more matter," said Robin presently, uncrossing one
splashed leg from over the other. "I had not thought to speak of it; but
I think it best now to do so. It concerns myself a little; and,
therefore, if I may flatter myself, it concerns my friends, too."

He smiled genially upon the company; for if there was one thing more
than another he had learned in his travels, it was that the tragic air
never yet helped any man.

Marjorie lifted her eyes a moment.

"Mistress Manners," he said, "you remember my speaking to you after
Fotheringay, of a fellow of my lord Shrewsbury's who honoured me with
his suspicions?"

She nodded.

"I have never set eyes on him from that day to this--to this," he added.
"And this morning in the open street in Derby whom should I meet with
but young Merton and his father. (Her Grace's servants have suffered
horribly since last year. But that is a tale for another day.) Well: I
stopped to speak with these two. The young man hath left Mr. Melville's
service a while back, it seems; and is to try his fortune in France.
Well; we were speaking of this and that, when who should come by but a
party of men and my lord Shrewsbury in the midst, riding with Mr. Roger
Columbell; and immediately behind them my friend of the 'New Inn' of
Fotheringay. It was all the ill-fortune in the world that it should be
at such moment; if he had seen me alone he would have thought no more of
me; but seeing me with young Jack Merton, he looked from one to the
other. And I will stake my hat he knew me again."

Marjorie was looking full at him now.

"What was my lord Shrewsbury doing in Derby with Mr. Columbell?" mused