"Come with you?" she cried.
"My lady will come also, and we three together will seek your father in Cornwall. On my faith, madame, there is no safety but in flight."
"My mother lies too sick for travelling. Didn't you hear it from my father?"
"I haven't seen my lord. My knowledge of his letter came through the Duke of Monmouth, and although he spoke there of my lady's sickness, I trusted that she had recovered."
"My mother cannot travel. It is impossible."
He came a step nearer her.
"Fontelles will be here to-morrow," he said. "If you are here then——! Yet if there be any other whose aid you could seek——?" Again he paused, regarding her intently.
She sat in sore distress, twisting her hands in her lap. One there was, and not far away. Yet to send for him crossed her resolution and stung her pride most sorely. We had parted in anger, she and I; I had blamed my share in the quarrel bitterly enough, it is likely she had spared herself no more; yet the more fault is felt the harder comes its acknowledgment.
"Is Mr Dale in Hatchstead?" asked Carford boldly and bluntly.
"I don't know where he is. He brought me here, but I have heard nothing from him since we parted."