ut him off both his
orders and his wedding."

"We have no right over him, Mrs Underhill," said Isoult.

"No right!" answered she. "Doth not every man that knoweth you and him
know that you have but to whisper, and he shall run at your bidding?
Mrs Avery, if you asked that lad for his head, I do very nigh believe he
should cut it off for you."

"I must talk with Jack of this matter," responded Isoult, thoughtfully.

So, when she left the Lime Hurst, she came home to dinner, and after
dinner rode on to West Ham. In the parlour there she found Thekla at
her spinning; but Mrs Rose (a most unwonted thing for her), sat by the
casement idle, with her hands lying before her.

"Hear you Mr Underhill is in prison?" were her first words.

"Ay," said Isoult; "and that you, dear friend, are sore disquieted, for
the which cause I come."

"Disquieted!" she answered, the tears springing to her eyes. "Is it
like I shall be quiet? How know I who shall be in prison to-morrow?
They may burn mine husband and banish me before a month. And what is to
come of Thekla?"

"Dear mother," said Thekla, gently, "they will not put God in prison."

"They may put there every servant that He hath," said she, bitterly.

"I think you know, dear heart," replied Isoult, "that so long as we have
any shelter to offer unto her, Thekla shall not be without one."

"But how long may be that?" she answered; and, burying her face in her
handkerchief, she began sobbing.

Isoult hardly knew what to say, but she heard Mr Rose's step, and
awaited his coming. He greeted her kindly, and then turning at once to
his wife, said, "Sweet heart, why weepest thou?"

"Mrs Rose feareth we may all be prisoned or execute afore a month be
over," said Isoult, for Mrs Rose was sobbing too heartily to speak.

"Truth," he answered. "What then?"

"What then?" she cried through her tears. "Why, Tom, art thou mad?
`What then,' to such matter as the breaking of our hearts and the
burning of our bodies? `What then!'"

"Then," said he, gently, "thou art not ready (as Paul was) `not only to
be bound, but also to die' for the Lord Jesus? Is it so, my
Marguerite?"

"I know not what I were ready to do myself," she said, "but I am not
ready to see thee nor Thekla to do so."

"Well, sweet heart," said he, "methinks I am ready. Ready--to be
confessed before the angels of God, and the Father which is in Heaven:
ready--to wear a martyr crown before all the world: ready-