night."

"At Rye," said Hubert, "why I came from there yesterday."

Lackington bowed again, as if he were quite aware of this; but said
nothing.

"Then I will sup here," went on Hubert, "and we will talk meantime."

When a place had been laid for him, he drew his chair round to the table
and began to eat.

"May I begin at once?" asked Lackington, who had finished.

Hubert nodded.

"Then first I believe it to be a fact that you spoke with Mistress Isabel
Morris on board the _Elizabeth_ at Rye on the tenth of August last."

Hubert had started violently at her name; but did his utmost to gain
outward command of himself again immediately.

"Well?" he said.

--"And with Master Anthony Norris, lately made a priest beyond the seas."

"That is a lie," said Hubert.

Lackington politely lifted his eyebrows.

"Indeed?" he said. "That he was made a priest, or that you spoke with
him?"

"That I know aught of him," said Hubert. His heart was beating furiously.

Lackington made a note rather ostentatiously; he could see that Hubert
was frightened, and thought that it was because of a possible accusation
of having dealings with a traitor.

"And as regards Mistress Norris," he said judicially, with his pencil
raised, "you deny having spoken with her?"

Hubert was thinking furiously. Then he saw that Lackington knew too much
for its being worth his own while to deny it.

"No, I never denied that," he said, lifting his fork to his mouth; and he
went on eating with a deliberate ease as Lackington again made a note.

The next question was a home-thrust.

"Where are they both now?" asked Lackington, looking at him. Hubert's
mind laboured like a mill.

"I do not know," he said.

"You swear it?"

"I swear it."

"Then Mistress Norris has changed her plans?" said Lackington swiftly.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Why she told you where they were going when you met?" said the other in
a remonstrating tone.

Hubert suddenly saw the game. If the authorities really knew that, it
would have been a useless question. He stared at Lackington with an
admirable vacancy.

"Indeed she did not," he said. "For aught I know, they--she is in France
again."

"They?" said Lackington shrewdly. "Then you do know somewhat of the
priest?"

But Hubert was again too sharp.

"Only what you told me just now, when you said he was at Rye. I supposed
you were telling the truth."

Lackington passed his hand smoothly over his mouth