"I am still waiting to hear the second condition," I said, trying as well as I could to see my way through the business, and decide what steps to take.
"It is this," cried Otho. "You promise not to interest yourself in any way with Mistress Molesworth; that you never speak of her within one month from this time; that you render no assistance in any way to those who seek to baulk me in my purposes."
The last sentence came out seemingly against his will. As luck would have it, too, I turned my eyes in the direction of Benet at this time, and noted the gleam in his eyes.
"If I mistake not," I said to myself, "Benet loveth not Otho, and it would take but little to make him lift his hand against his brother."
"Why this second condition?" I said, more for the purpose of gaining time than anything else. "What hath Mistress Nancy Molesworth to do with me?"
"How do you know her name is Nancy?" he asked savagely.
"I heard John Polperro name it. But what hath she to do with me?"
"I would not have given you this opportunity," he went on, without heeding my question. "As soon as I knew you had climbed to the roof where she walks, I determined that you should be kept in safety until such time as—as——but it does not matter; Benet would not have it so. He suggested that you should have a chance of escape."
I saw that Benet looked eagerly at me as though he would speak, but by an effort he restrained himself.
"The maid is not in a convent school now," I said jibingly. "She is not to be a nun, I suppose. And I have taken no vow that I will not speak to a maid."