"What do your letters say to ye, Kitty, this morning?" asked Doyle Fane, who, after more than forty years' absence from his native land, still retained some of its rich raciness of tone and accent. "Ye've a big post there before ye, me child."
"Very little of any importance," she replied. "The night coach through St. Albans brings me a letter from his lordship trusting I shall be happy during his enforced absence. Faugh! Also there is one by the French packet from Kathleen Muskerry. Her uncle, the priest at Marly, is removed to St. Roch. Lady Belrose, whose acquaintance I made a month ago at Leicester House, writes desiring me to accompany her to the masquerade at Vauxhall."
"Good, me child, good. And what for not? 'Twill do ye good to see some life, to----"
"To see some life!" she repeated, "see some life! In the midst of death all around us!"
"Death!" the old man repeated. "Death! Faith, I did not know it. What death is there around us?"
"Father!" she exclaimed, looking at him, "is there not death all around--threatening those whom we love--whom we loved once? Do you not know that London is at the present moment full of followers of the unhappy prince, who, if they are caught, must be doomed? Do you not know that the Tower, Newgate, the New Gaol over the water in Southwark, is crowded with such men, all of whom have soon to stand their trial for high treason--men of whom we have known many, some of whom were your pupils? Father, this is no time for masquerades."
For a moment the old man gazed at her with solemn eyes, as though endeavouring to penetrate her mind, to discover if behind her words there lay any hidden meaning; then he asked:
"Are there any--any whom--we know particularly well among these threatened men? You may tell me, Kitty. You may trust me--now."
"Is not Father Sholto in jeopardy?" she asked, while her eyes also rested on him much as his had dwelt on her. Perhaps she, too, was wondering if he guessed to whom, more than all others, her remarks applied. "If he were discovered would he not share the gaol, if not the scaffold? He told us yesterday that there was a newly-made law against any Jesuit priests from France who should be found in England."[[Note B]]
"Are there any--any others?" he almost whispered. But still her clear blue eyes regarded him, and she spoke no word.