“Give me your word as a gentleman that you will go to her and return at once, and I will let you cross to Lady Gowan’s apartments without an escort.”
“Escort, sir?” said Frank wonderingly.
“Well, without a corporal and a file of men as guard.”
“Oh, of course I’ll come back,” said the boy, smiling. “I’m not going to run away.”
“Go, then, at once.”
Captain Murray walked with him to the door, made a sign to the sentry, who drew back to stand at attention, and the boy began to descend.
“How long may I stay, sir?” he asked.
“As long as Lady Gowan wishes; but be back before dark.”
“Poor old Drew!” thought Frank, as he hurried across to the courtyard upon which his mother’s apartments opened; “it’s a deal worse for him than it is for me. But he’s half mad with his rightful-king ideas, and ready to say or do anything to help them on. But to say such a thing as that about my father! Oh!”
He was ushered at once into his mother’s presence, but she did not hear the door open or close; and as she lay on a couch, with her head turned so that her face was buried in her hands, he thought she was asleep.