and a few portraits. A
staircase rose out of it to the upper story. It had a fret-ceiling, with
flower-de-luce and rose pendants, and on the walls between the tapestries
hung a few antlers and pieces of armour, morions and breast-plates, with
a pair of pikes or halberds here and there. A fire had been lighted in
the great hearth as the evenings were chilly; and Sir Nicholas was
standing before it, still in his riding-dress, pouring out resentment and
fury to his wife, who sat in a tall chair at her embroidery. She turned
silently and held out a hand to Isabel, who came and stood beside her,
while Hubert went and sat down near his father. Sir Nicholas scarcely
seemed to notice their entrance, beyond glancing up for a moment under
his fierce white eyebrows; but went on growling out his wrath. He was a
fine rosy man, with grey moustache and pointed beard, and a thick head of
hair, and he held in his hand his flat riding cap, and his whip with
which from time to time he cut at his boot.

"It was monstrous, I told the fellow, that a man should be haled from his
home like this to pay a price for his conscience. The religion of my
father and his father and all our fathers was good enough for me; and why
in God's name should the Catholic have to pay who had never changed his
faith, while every heretic went free? And then to that some stripling of
a clerk told me that a religion that was good enough for the Queen's
Grace should be good enough for her loyal subjects too; but my Lord
silenced him quickly. And then I went at them again; and all my Lord
would do was to nod his head and smile at me as if I were a child; and
then he told me that it was a special Commission all for my sake, and Sir
Arthur's, who was there too, my dear.... Well, well, the end was that I
had to pay for their cursed religion."

"Sweetheart, sweetheart," said Lady Maxwell, glancing at Isabel.

"Well, I paid," went on Sir Nicholas, "but I showed them, thank God, what
I was: for as we came out, Sir Arthur and I together, what should we see
but another party coming in, pursuivant and all; and in the mid of them
that priest who was with us last July.--Well, well, we'll leave his name
alone--him that said he was a priest before them all in September; and I
went down on my knees, thank God, and Sir Arthur went down on his, and we
asked his blessing before them all, and he gave it us: and oh! my Lord
was red and white with passion."

"That was not wise, sweet