"Poor young thing!" commented His Grace of Buckingham kindly. "She has been hard hit in that last Affair."
"I wonder what has happened to Wychwoode," added Lord Rochester, who had been a known Friend of Lord Douglas.
"Oh! he reached Holland safely enough," another Gentleman whom I did not know averred. "I suppose he thinks that it will all blow over presently and that he will obtain a free pardon——"
"Like my Lord Stour," commented Mr. Betterton drily.
"Oh! that's hardly likely," interposed Sir George Etherege. "Wychwoode was up to the neck in the Conspiracy, whilst Stour was proved to be innocent of the whole affair."
"How do you know that?" Mr. Betterton asked quietly.
"How do I know it?" retorted Sir George. "Why? ... How do we all know it?"
"I was wondering," was Mr. Betterton's calm Rejoinder.
"I imagine," broke in another Gentleman, "that at the Trial——"
"Stour never stood his trial, now you come to think of it," here interposed my Lord of Rochester.