“Indeed?” he said. “That he was made a priest, or that you spoke with him?”
“That I know aught of him,” said Hubert. His heart was beating furiously.
Lackington made a note rather ostentatiously; he could see that Hubert was frightened, and thought that it was because of a possible accusation of having dealings with a traitor.
“And as regards Mistress Norris,” he said judicially, with his pencil raised, “you deny having spoken with her?”
Hubert was thinking furiously. Then he saw that Lackington knew too much for its being worth his own while to deny it.
“No, I never denied that,” he said, lifting his fork to his mouth; and he went on eating with a deliberate ease as Lackington again made a note.
The next question was a home-thrust.
“Where are they both now?” asked Lackington, looking at him. Hubert’s mind laboured like a mill.
“I do not know,” he said.
“You swear it?”