ressed to do; and after a short debate with
himself upon his position, he gratefully consented to do so.

"That is right, that is right," cried the farmer, when he came in
at midday for the dinner that family and servants all shared
together; and presently, when the meal was over, and the women had
retired to wash up the platters in an adjoining room, whilst the
labourers had started forth for their labours, the master drew his
guest into the warm inglenook again, and said to him in a low
voice:

"I'll be right glad to have a good Lancastrian abiding beneath my
roof for awhile. The good brothers of Leighs are our best
customers, and one or another of them is always coming across on
some errand, and 'twill do us no harm in their eyes to find a
follower of King Henry under our roof. I know not how it is, but of
late they have been somewhat changed toward us;" and the farmer
looked uneasily round, as if hardly knowing who might be listening.
"We go to mass as regular as any; and my little girl there has
worked a robe for the reverend prior himself as cost me a pretty
penny in materials, and half blinded her pretty eyes, she sat at it
so close. They have no need to look askance at us; but there,
there, I suppose they have had a deal of trouble with the heretic
books and such like as have been getting about the country of late.
They say they found a Wycliffe's Bible hidden under the hearth
stone of a poor woman's cottage in Little Waltham, nigh at hand
here; and if King Henry had been on the throne, she might have been
sent up to Smithfield to be burned, as an example and warning to
others. But King Edward was on the throne then, and he cares not to
burn his subjects for heresy--God bless him for that! But if King
Henry is coming back to reign, it behoves all good persons to be
careful and walk warily. So, young sir, if you can speak a good
word for us to the holy brothers, I will thank you with all my
heart. It's a bad thing when they get the notion that a house is
corrupted by heresy."

The palpable uneasiness of the farmer betrayed to Paul full well
that he was very much afraid of the orthodoxy of his wife, and it
was not impossible that he himself might not be secretly favouring
the new religion whilst conforming outwardly in all things. Such
cases were by no means rare, and this village appeared Yorkist
enough in its sentiments to suggest suspicions as to its orthodoxy.

But Paul was young and impressionable and g