"There are two or three at least, and no trouble made. They hear mass when they can at the Embassies. Mendoza is a very good friend of ours."
Mr. Charnoc came up presently to the two. He was a cheerful-looking man, of northern descent, very particular in his clothes, with large gold ear-rings; he wore a short, pointed beard above his stiff ruff, and his eyes were bright and fanatical.
"You are from Rheims, I understand, Mr. Alban."
He sat down with something of an air next to Robin.
"And your county—?" he asked.
"I am from Derbyshire, sir," said Robin.
"From Derbyshire. Then you will have heard of Mistress Marjorie Manners, no doubt."
"She is an old friend of mine," said Robin, smiling. (The man had a great personal charm about him.)
"You are very happy in your friends, then," said the other. "I have never spoken with her myself; but I hear of her continually as assisting our people—sending them now up into the Peak country, now into the towns, as the case may be—and never a mistake."
* * * * *