"You come to mock me, doubtless," said Nell at last.
"That would be to mock my own pride, Mistress. I came with quite other thoughts."
"I am honoured that the lady of the house sees fit—in a late hour, perchance—to give welcome to her guest."
"Lower your voice, I beg. There's a pair of sharp ears at the door, and what I have to say will not bear listening to.—Hark ye, Mistress! I am going to pluck you out of this, and quickly."
"How, you? I do not understand—I——"
"Nay, 'tis for no love of you I do it, but because they mean to use you as a lure to bring your brother up to Wildwater."
Nell lost a little of her upright carriage. "Is that why they brought me here?" she asked slowly.
"For that—and with a thought of their own pleasure, doubtless, afterward. Shall I save your brother, Mistress, or will it defile him to owe safety to such as me?"
Nell turned to the window again, and did not answer for a space. Then, "Go," she whispered faintly—"but I would God it had been any one but you."
"And I would God I might save him alone, leaving you to nurse your pride in a cold lap. But fate is hard, Mistress, and compels us to travel over the same bridge; 'twould be well to hold your skirts, lest I touch them by the way."