'I doubt it, Dorothy. He and my father, as I am given to understand, think so differently in respect of affairs now pending betwixt the parliament and the king, that—'
'It were more becoming, Richard, if the door of your lips opened to the king first, and let the parliament follow.'
'Well said!' returned the youth with a smile. 'But let it be my excuse that I speak as I am wont to hear.'
The girl's hand had lain quiet in that of the youth, but now it started from it like a scared bird. She stepped two paces back, and drew herself up.
'And you, Richard?' she said, interrogatively.
'What would you ask, Dorothy?' returned the youth, taking a step nearer, to which she responded by another backward ere she replied.
'I would know whom you choose to serve—whether God or Satan; whether you are of those who would set at nought the laws of the land——'
'Insist on their fulfilment, they say, by king as well as people,' interrupted Richard.
'They would tear their mother in pieces——'
'Their mother!' repeated Richard, bewildered.