"Yes, but I thought she had gone to stay with her sister for a few weeks," said Miles. "Now, couldn't Reuben take a message to her on his way back to Woodstock? Let him carry the good news that you have found work at last, and it may be she can stay where she is for the present, as you will be able to pay something of her charges when a messenger can be found to carry it; or one of us can journey thither ourselves."
"Master Miles, that is a wise thought, and if Reuben will only carry the news I shall be thankful. I cannot stay to talk longer," he added, and he ran off after his fellow-workmen, for fear he should be thought to be idling if he was not ready with the rest to shoulder the slab that should be given into his charge.
It was heavy work, but the landlord of the hostelry had given him a good meal, and he could pay for the next himself, and hope gave him strength and courage too.
It also cheered Miles, and, as he took his way to his tutor's room, he thought his mischance of being taken prisoner was not such a grievous calamity after all if it helped poor Rankin into a settled mode of living.
He was so full of this that he told his friend all about this first, and then spoke of his own changed prospects unless his father would forgive him and send him the needful means to continue his studies until he could take his degree.
"You are a very good Greek scholar I know, Paton, but whether you could earn anything by translating is another matter. There is also the law of the Church to be considered, for what you propose to do is in direct contravention of it. We have this beautiful Testament of Erasmus, and we cannot be too thankful for it, but although our present Archbishop Warham, and many others, approve of it, many see in it a great danger to the Church, and what they would say or do, if it was known that anyone dared to do it into English, I cannot tell."
Miles opened his eyes in astonishment. "If it is so good for us who have learned the Greek tongue, why should it not be good for those who can only read English, but yet desire to find a rational practical religion such as the New Testament teaches?"
"Because it is not considered safe to put the Bible into the hands of the unlearned. While it is in Greek and Latin only it is safe from the simple folk; but, if it is rendered into English, they would be able to read it for themselves."
"And wherefore should they not have this great gift for which, you say, we ought to be thankful?"
But his friend only smiled, and shook his head cautiously. He would not encourage the lad in such a dangerous project, and he told him so, at the same time warning him that if he did undertake such a task he must go about it very carefully, or he would involve himself and his friends in a good deal of trouble.