“I misdoubt if they come for any good purpose.”
“Ay so?” said Nicholas in apparent surprise. “What leads you to that thought, trow?”
“I loved not neither of their faces; nor I liked not of their talk. That shorter man was for ever putting questions anent the folks in this vicinage that loved the Gospel; and Collet Pardue told him more than she should, or I mistake.”
Nicholas White smiled. “I reckoned you were in some haste to let her wit that her master wanted her,” he said.
“I was that. I was in a hurry to stop her tongue.”
“Well!” said the ironmonger after a short pause, “the Lord keep His own!”
“Amen!” returned the mason. “But methinks, friend, the Lord works not many miracles to save even His own from traps whereinto they have run with their eyes open.”
They walked on for a few minutes in silence. “What think you,” asked White, “is come of Mistress Benden?”
“Would I wist!” answered Banks. “Master Hall saith he’ll never let be till he find her, without he be arrest himself.”
“That will he, if he have not a care.”