If he expected the mask to drop for an instant from the soft, regular features of Lucrece, he was sadly disappointed. Not a look, nor a gesture, showed that she felt either surprised or disconcerted.
“’Tis true, Father. The poor lad did say some like words unto me. But I gave him no encouragement to seek you.”
“Thou wouldst have me to conceive, then, that thou art wholly free from any plight whatsoe’er unto Arthur?”
“Wholly free, Father. I ne’er gave him to wit otherwise.”
Sir Thomas believed her; Rachel did not. The next thing, in the squire’s honest eyes, was to let Arthur know that Lucrece was about to marry Sir Piers,—not directly, since Arthur himself had made no open declaration; but he proposed to go down to the parsonage, and mention the fact, as if incidentally, in Arthur’s presence. He found Lucrece rather averse to this scheme.
“It should but trouble the poor lad,” she said. “Why not leave him discover the same as matters shall unfold them?”
“Tom!” said Rachel to her brother apart, “go thou down, and tell Arthur the news. I am afeared Lucrece hath some cause, not over good, for wishing silence kept.”
“Good lack!” cried the worried Squire. “Wellnigh would I that every one of my childre had been a lad! These maidens be such changeable and chargeable gear, I verily wis not what to do withal.”
“Bide a while, Tom, till Jack hath been in the Court a year or twain; maybe then I shall hear thee to wish that all had been maids.”
Down to the parsonage trudged the puzzled and unhappy man, and found that Arthur was at home. He chatted for a short time with the family in general, and then told the ladies, as a piece of news which he expected to interest them, that his daughter Lucrece was about to be married. Had he not intentionally kept his eyes from Arthur while he spoke, he would have seen that the young man went white to the lips.