'Will you do what this knight asks?' she uttered. 'For what he asks seemeth prudent.'
'A' God's name,' Katharine said, 'let me not now hear of this man.'
'Why,' the Lady Mary answered coolly, 'if I am to be of the Queen's alliance I must be of the Queen's council and my voice have a weight.'
'But will you? Will you?' Katharine brought out.
'Will you listen to my voice?' Mary said. 'I will not listen to yours. Hear now what this goodly knight saith. For, if I am to be your well-wisher, I must call him goodly that so well wishes to you.'
Katharine wrung her hands.
'Ye torture me,' she said.
'Well, I have been tortured,' Mary answered, 'and I have come through it and live.'
She swallowed in her throat, and thus, with her eyes upon the writing, brought out the words—
'This knight bids you beware of one Mary Lascelles or Hall, and her brother, Edward Lascelles, that is of the Archbishop's service.'