She uttered maliciously:
'Well, well. I thought you came of the better times before our day.'
'I have shewn myself a good enough man,' he said composedly. He pointed one of his fingers at her.
'Pole is not one that shall be easily slain. He is like to have in his pay the defter spadassins of the two. I have known him since he was a child till when he fled abroad.'
'But my cousin!' Katharine pleaded.
'For the sake of your own little neck, let that gallant be hanged,' he said smartly. 'You have need of many friends; I can see it in your complexion, which is of a hasty loyalty. But I tell you, I had never come near you, so your cousin miscalled me, a man of worth and credit, had these ladies not prayed me to come to you.'
She raised herself to her full height.
'It is not in the books of your knight-errantry,' she cried, 'that one should leave one's friends to the hangman of Paris.'
The large figure of Margot Poins thrust itself upon them.
'A' God's name,' said her gruff voice of great emotion, 'hear the words of this valiant soldier. Your cousin shall ruin you. It is true that he will drive from you all your good friends....' She faltered, and her impulse carried her no further. Rochford tapped her flushed cheek gently with his glove, but a light and hushing step in the corridor made them all silent.