the price of
priesthood to James Maxwell.

"And where shall you be trained for it?" she asked.

"At Douai: and--Isabel--I think I must go this summer."

"This summer!" she said. "Why----" and she was silent.

"Anthony," she went on, "I would like to tell you about Hubert."

And then the story of the past months came out; she turned away her face
as she talked; and at last she told him how Hubert had come for his
answer, a week before his time.

"It was on Monday," she said. "I heard him on the stairs, and stood up as
he came in; and he stopped at the door in silence, and I could not bear
to look at him. I could hear him breathing quickly; and then I could not
bear to--think of it all; and I dropped down into my chair again, and hid
my face in my arm and burst into crying. And still he said nothing, but I
felt him come close up to me and kneel down by me; and he put his hand
over mine, and held them tight; and then he whispered in a kind of quick
way:

"'I will be what you please; Catholic or Protestant, or what you will';
and I lifted my head and looked at him, because it was dreadful to hear
him--Hubert--say that: and he was whiter than I had ever seen him; and
then--then he began to wrinkle his mouth--you know the way he does when
his horse is pulling or kicking: and then he began to say all kinds of
things: and oh! I was so sorry; because he had behaved so well till
then."

"What did he say?" asked Anthony quickly.

"Ah! I have tried to forget," said Isabel. "I do not want to think of him
as he was when he was angry and disappointed. At last he flung out of the
room and down the stairs, and I have not seen him since. But Lady Maxwell
sent for me the same evening an hour later; and told me that she could
not live there any longer. She said that Hubert had ridden off to London;
and would not be down again till Whitsuntide; but that she must be gone
before then. So I am afraid that he said things he ought not; but of
course she did not tell me one word. And she asked me to go with her.
And, and--Anthony, I did not know what to say; because I did not know
what you would do when you heard that I was a Catholic; I was waiting to
tell you when you came home--but now--but now----Oh, Anthony, my
darling!"

At last the two came indoors. Mistress Margaret met them in the hall. She
looked for a moment at the two; at Anthony in his satin and lace and his
smiling face over his ruff and his steady brown eyes; and Isabel