She laughed softly. "I think I was one too many for him then. You see he'd prepared the ground in a way by mentioning people I'd never heard of, so I just shook my head, then pretended to think and said I wasn't sure that my mother had not known some Lancasters. He'd been so decent, that that seemed easier than just lying outright. He was eager for more and asked me to try and remember, as he had a very particular reason for being interested in them; but that looked dangerous, so I thought it best not to remember anything else Lancastrian."
"Well?"
"Don't rush me. I could tell that I was over that bridge all right; but it was only the first. After a bit he brought up Jimmy Lamb's name, and I laughed and clapped my hands and said he was my brother-in-law. Why, what's the matter? Was that wrong?" she cried, noticing my frown.
"Perhaps not, but it was Jimmy's passport I was to use, and he's supposed to have gone down in the Burgen. It won't matter, probably."
"I'd forgotten all about that. No wonder he was interested and poured a volley of questions into me about him. But that was all safe enough, because I haven't heard a word about Jimmy since I've been here, and naturally couldn't tell him anything. One of them was whether Jimmy knew the Lancasters, by the by. And I can see why he asked it."
Unpleasantly ominous, this; since it was clear he was trying to establish the connection between me and Jimmy. "And after that?"
"Butter wouldn't have melted in his mouth. He asked me about you as Lassen; safe ground again: and wound up by thanking me for having answered his questions so frankly; declared he was quite satisfied, and then, as I told you, said he would use his influence to see that I went home."
"Anything about our going together?"
"Yes. He said it might not be well for me to travel alone and asked if there was any one who could see me to the frontier."
"You didn't suggest me?" I broke in.