"If you have a suggestion to make to him you should decide at once," the
other went on, "the courier is to go on Monday, is he not, Anthony?"

The boy nodded.

"But will he not allow us," he said, "to stay at home as usual?
Surely----"

Lady Maxwell shook her head.

"And Isabel?" she asked, "who will look after her when you are away?"

"Mrs. Carroll?" he said interrogatively.

Again she shook her head.

"He would never consent," she said, "it would not be right."

Isabel looked up suddenly, and her eyes brightened a little.

"Lady Maxwell--" she began, and then stopped, embarrassed.

"Well, my dear?"

"What is it, Isabel?" asked Anthony.

"If it were possible--but, but I could not ask it."

"If you mean Margaret, my dear"; said the old lady serenely, drawing her
needle carefully through, "it was what I thought myself; but I did not
know if you would care for that. Is that what you meant?"

"Oh, Lady Maxwell," said the girl, her face lighting up.

Then the old lady explained that it was not possible to ask them to live
permanently at the Hall, although of course Isabel must do so until an
arrangement had been made; because their father would scarcely have
wished them to be actually inmates of a Catholic house; but that he
plainly had encouraged close relations between the two houses, and
indeed, Lady Maxwell interpreted his mention of his daughter's name, and
his look as he said it, in the sense that he wished those relations to
continue. She thought therefore that there was no reason why their new
guardian's consent should not be asked to Mistress Margaret's coming over
to the Dower House to take charge of Isabel, if the girl wished it. He
had no particular interest in them; he lived a couple of hundred miles
away, and the arrangement would probably save him a great deal of trouble
and inconvenience.

"But you, Lady Maxwell," Isabel burst out, her face kindled with hope,
for she had dreaded the removal terribly, "you will be lonely here."

"Dear child," said the old lady, laying down her embroidery, "God has
been gracious to me; and my husband is coming back to me; you need not
fear for me." And she told them, with her old eyes full of happy tears,
how she had had a private word, which they must not repeat, from a
Catholic friend at Court, that all had been decided for Sir Nicholas'
release, though he did not know it himself yet, and that he would be at
home again for Advent. The prison fever was