“Come downstairs with me, my darling; there is nothing more that we can do.”
They went out of the room together; the mother and son had not stirred again; and Mistress Margaret slipped her arm quickly round the girl’s waist, as they went downstairs.
In the cloister beneath was a pleasant little oak parlour looking out on to the garden and the long south side of the house. Mistress Margaret took the little hand-lamp that burned in the cloister itself as they passed along silently together, and guided the girl through into the parlour on the left-hand side. There was a tall chair standing before the hearth, and as Mistress Margaret sat down, drawing the girl with her, Isabel sank down on the footstool at her feet, and hid her face on the old nun’s knees.
There was silence for a minute or two. Mistress Margaret set down the lamp on the table beside her, and passed her hands caressingly over the girl’s hands and hair; but said nothing, until Isabel’s whole body heaved up convulsively once or twice, before she burst into a torrent of weeping.
“My darling,” said the old lady in a quiet steady voice, “we should thank God instead of grieving. To think that this house should have given two confessors to the Church, father and son! Yes, yes, dear child, I know what you are thinking of, the two dear lads we both love; well, well, we do not know, we must trust them both to God. It may not be true of Anthony; and even if it be true—well, he must have thought he was serving his Queen. And for Hubert——”
Isabel lifted her face and looked with a dreadful questioning stare.
“Dear child,” said the nun, “do not look like that. Nothing is so bad as not trusting God.”
“Anthony, Anthony!”... whispered the girl.
“James told us the same story as the gentleman on Sunday,” went on the nun. “But he said no hard word, and he does not condemn. I know his heart. He does not know why he is released, nor by whose order: but an order came to let him go, and his papers with it: and he must be out of England by Monday morning: so he leaves here to-morrow in the litter in which he came. He is to say mass to-morrow, if he is able.”