"Not even that?"
"No, nothing; not even that," I said.
"Nor that within a month, in all probability, he will be tried and executed!"
"No."
"Nor that your master is in peril? You have not heard that Sir John has turned on him and denounced him before the Council of the King?"
"No," I said. "How should I?"
"What?" she cried incredulously. "You do not know that with which all England is ringing--though it touches you of all men?"
"How should I?" I said feebly. "Who would tell me here? And for weeks I have been ill."
She nodded. "Go on," she said.
I obeyed. I took up the thread again, told her how we reached Ashford, how I saw Sir John, how I fled, and how I was pursued; finally how I was received on board the boat, and never, until the following day, when Birkenhead flung it in my teeth, guessed that I had forestalled Sir John, and robbed him of his one chance of escape. "For if I had known," I continued warmly, "why should I fly from him? What had I to fear from him? Or what to gain, if Smith with a pistol were not at my heels, by leaving England? Gain?" I continued bitterly, seeing that I had convinced her. "What did I gain? This! This!" And I touched my crippled leg.