rew quieter in a few minutes and lay still, following Anthony
with her imagination along the lane that led to the London road, and then
presently she heard her father calling, and went to the door to listen.

"Isabel," he said, "come down. Hubert is in the hall."

She called out that she would be down in a moment; and then going across
to her own room she washed her face and came downstairs. There was a
tall, pleasant-faced lad of about her own age standing near the open door
that led into the garden; and he came forward nervously as she entered.

"I came back last night, Mistress Isabel," he said, "and heard that
Anthony was going this morning: but I am afraid I am too late."

She told him that Anthony had just gone.

"Yes," he said, "I came to say good-bye; but I came by the orchard, and
so we missed one another."

Isabel asked a word or two about his visit to the North, and they talked
for a few minutes about a rumour that Hubert had heard of a rising on
behalf of Mary: but Hubert was shy and constrained, and Isabel was still
a little tremulous. At last he said he must be going, and then suddenly
remembered a message from his mother.

"Ah!" he said, "I was forgetting. My mother wants you to come up this
evening, if you have time. Father is away, and my aunt is unwell and is
upstairs."

Isabel promised she would come.

"Father is at Chichester," went on Hubert, "before the Commission, but we
do not expect him back till to-morrow."

A shadow passed across Isabel's face. "I am sorry," she said.

The fact was that Sir Nicholas had again been summoned for recusancy. It
was an expensive matter to refuse to attend church, and Sir Nicholas
probably paid not less than L200 or L300 a year for the privilege of
worshipping as his conscience bade.

In the evening Isabel asked her father's leave to be absent after supper,
and then drawing on her hood, walked across in the dusk to the Hall.
Hubert was waiting for her at the boundary door between the two
properties.

"Father has come back," he said, "but my mother wants you still." They
went on together, passed round the cloister wing to the south of the
house: the bell turret over the inner hall and the crowded roofs stood up
against the stars, as they came up the curving flight of shallow steps
from the garden to the tall doorway that led into the hall.

It was a pleasant, wide, high room, panelled with fresh oak, and hung
with a little old tapestry here and there,