ures, and at
that moment he could think of no other whereby he might so naturally
convey the utter indifference of his feelings in the matter.

"Joseph, you are wrong," said Gregory, turning his back upon the window
and facing his brother. "It is not all one. What if he return some day?"

"Oh, what if--what if--what if!" cried Joseph testily. "Gregory, what a
casuist you might have been had not nature made you a villain! You
are as full of "what if s" as an egg of meat. Well what if some day he
should return? I fling your question back--what if?"

"God only knows."

"Then leave it to Him," was the flippant answer; and Joseph drained his
glass.

"Nay, brother, 'twere too great a risk. I must and I will know whether
Kenneth were slain or not. If he is a prisoner, then we must exert
ourselves to win his freedom."

"Plague take it," Joseph burst out. "Why all this ado? Why did you ever
loose that graceless whelp from his Scottish moor?"

Gregory sighed with an air of resigned patience.

"I have more reasons than one," he answered slowly. "If you need that
I recite them to you, I pity your wits. Look you, Joseph, you have more
influence with Cromwell; more--far more--than have I, and if you are
minded to do so, you can serve me in this."

"I wait but to learn how."

"Then go to Cromwell, at Windsor or wherever he may be, and seek to
learn from him if Kenneth is a prisoner. If he is not, then clearly he
is dead."

Joseph made a gesture of impatience.

"Can you not leave Fate alone?"

"Think you I have no conscience, Joseph?" cried the other with sudden
vigour.

"Pish! you are womanish."

"Nay, Joseph, I am old. I am in the autumn of my days, and I would see
these two wed before I die."

"And are damned for a croaking, maudlin' craven," added Joseph. "Pah!
You make me sick."

There was a moment's silence, during which the brothers eyed each other,
Gregory with a sternness before which Joseph's mocking eye was forced at
length to fall.

"Joseph, you shall go to the Lord General."

"Well," said Joseph weakly, "we will say that I go. But if Kenneth be a
prisoner, what then?"

"You must beg his liberty from Cromwell. He will not refuse you."

"Will he not? I am none so confident."

"But you can make the attempt, and leastways we shall have some definite
knowledge of what has befallen the boy."

"The which definite knowledge seems to me none so necessary. Moreover,
Gregory, bethink you; there has bee