"I had hoped you were done with public affairs," said she. "At our age, the chimney corner is the best chair of state."
"I am wholly of your mind, sweetheart," replied her husband. "This is no matter of public business, however, but a private concern of mine own. I shall, I trust, be with you or else send you word of my progress tomorrow; and I would have you say a word of kindness to young Lucas, who has done me a great service, and, as I think, saved me from losing what I could ill spare."
My lady was always disposed to be gracious, at least, to her acknowledged inferiors. She asked Jack about his studies and his school, told him of a sovereign remedy for the headache, to which he was subject, and ended by giving him a plum-cake, and a silver piece.
At another time, Jack might have resented being treated like a schoolboy, but just now he was too full of interest and compassion to harbor any such feeling.
In the course of half an hour, the party were on the road, and riding at the best speed of the knight's good horses; the pony being left behind to rest and regale himself in Sir John's stable.
"You say my son was very weak and low," remarked Sir John after riding some time in silence. "Has any physician or priest been to see him?"
"Davy Brent sent for old Doctor Berton directly," answered Jack; "and he hath been to Master Arthur every day, but Master Arthur did not desire to see a priest."
"Did he say aught to show you the state of his mind?"
Jack had been hesitating as to whether he ought to say anything about Arthur's religious condition; but now that the way seemed so clearly opened, he hesitated no longer.
"Master Arthur begged me to read the Scripture to him, and I did so," said he. "He seemed, at first, to fear that he had betrayed himself to a spy of the priests, and when I reassured him, he showed me the scars which had been made on his wrists by the rack as he said, whereby I supposed he had been in the hands of the Inquisition somewhere in the Low Countries or in France. He seemed to fear that your worship would not receive him because he had heard the Lutheran preachers, and said it was Master Frith who told him he ought to return to his father."