'Hal went into a fit of laughter at the remembrance, which put the finishing stroke to my ill-humour. I broke away from him, and would not hear when he called after me:
'"Nay, but hear me, Algernon. I have thought of a plan."
'I resolved, however, that I would have nothing to do with Hal's plans for the future, and marched away to await my interview with Lady Sarah, feeling more angry with him than I had ever done before, and most ungrateful for his well-meant attempts to assist me. Phil Buckthorne at last summoned me to his sister's presence.
'"She has been asking me about a hundred questions," said he, "and boxed my ears for a simpleton when I told her 'twas only a frolic of ours to frighten Father Niccolo. She has got some maggot in her head, but what it is I can't say."
'I had only time for a hearty though secret wish that Lady Sarah was as great a simpleton as her brother, before I found myself standing within the door of her chamber, and face to face with the lady herself. Her sharp, black eyes seemed to look me through and through; and before I had settled how much of my secret I ought to reveal for the sake of shielding my companions, and how much I ought to keep back for the sake of Lady Dalrymple, she had drawn the whole story from me by a few skilful questions. Indeed, I soon found that she knew so much already about the danger my wife was in, and the pardon I had promised to obtain, that it was hopeless to try and keep anything from her.
'"And so for once in his life Master Hal Verney's schemes have miscarried," she said, with a mischievous laugh, "and you are farther from your object than ever. That boy's love of intrigue will be the plague of the whole Court by and by. I am heartily glad he should have been found out, even though I was the victim of this plot of his. I shall not grudge the fright he gave me, if it is the means of bringing on him the punishment his tricks so richly deserve. Indeed, there is not much doubt that he will receive that. The Queen is justly angry, both at what she saw of the unseemly invasion of her chapel, and also at what Father Niccolo has told her of your designs upon him, which my wise brother Phil so obligingly revealed. She hath already commissioned my Lord Chamberlain to make all inquiries upon the subject. So I am in great hopes that Master Hal Verney will either be dismissed from his pageship altogether, or at least find himself banished for a time to the solitudes of Windsor or Hampton Court, where he would find ample leisure to meditate upon his own ill-doings, and learn to amend his ways for the future."
'Lady Sarah looked so thoroughly and maliciously in earnest as she expressed her hopes of Hal's speedy disgrace, that I could not help exclaiming indignantly:
'"But why Hal more than any of the rest of us? You know, Lady Sarah, it is I who ought to get the worst of the punishment, whatever it may be. It was all my doing."
'"Tut, tut, child, never tell me," replied her Ladyship. "'Twas Hal Verney arranged the whole affair, I dare answer for it. I know his pranks of old. As for the rest, Phil deserves a punishment for not knowing his own sister, and I care not a jot what becomes of Roger Crosbie."
'"But I do," I burst out. "Roger and Phil knew nothing of our plans; they only joined for the sake of the frolic. I will go to the Queen and tell her everything, and say that if any one is to be banished or dismissed, it ought to me."