"And what do you require?"
He hesitated a second, and then he spoke in his old measured way. "First, I require to know where Mistress Nancy Molesworth is now. Second, I wish you to tell me your reasons for taking her away from Endellion. Third, I desire to be informed of all you know concerning that lady."
It was in the last question that my interest particularly lay. For, as the readers of this history know, I myself was in almost total ignorance of the things he desired to know. It is true, if I told him of my conversation with Peter Trevisa and his son, he would form his own surmises concerning Peter's plans, but even then I doubted if I should impart the information he wanted.
"You must surely know more about Mistress Nancy than I," I replied evasively. "Did your father not take her at the death of her father? Did he not send her to France? Did you not receive her at Endellion a few months ago? What, then, should there be for me to impart?"
"You know," he answered; "be frank with me. You were with her alone for many hours, and she told you many things."
"True, she told me many things," I replied; "but concerning what do you wish me to speak?"
Again he hesitated. I saw that he was afraid lest he might betray himself, and this was what I desired him to do.
"What do you know of her parentage, her father and mother's marriage? What of her father's will?"
"Was there a will?" I said at a venture, because I saw that it was by an effort that he mentioned it.