I found it hard work to keep silence.

“Only low people like himself,” said Grandmamma. “Those creatures will do anything for money.”

And then, Caesar bringing in a note with Mrs Newton’s compliments, the talk went off to something else.

On the Saturday evening there was an extra assembly, and I caught Ephraim as soon as ever I could.

“Ephraim, they have found it out!” I said, in a whisper.

“Turn your back on the room,” said he, quietly. “Yes, Cary, they have. There goes Keith’s first chance of safety—yet it was a poor one from the beginning.”

“Can nobody intercede for him?”

“With whom? The Electress is dead: and they say she was the only one who had much influence with the Elector.”

“He has daughters,” I suggested.

Ephraim shrugged his shoulders, as much as to say that was a very poor hope.