"That is better," she said, judiciously.
"Oh, Lady Betty," he cried, "I humbly ask you to forgive me."
Lady Betty looked at him quietly from an upper step.
"You may get up," she said. "But I warn you, sir, you have yet to earn your pardon. You have promised much, I want but a little. Will you take a note from me to Lewes to-night?"
"If I live!" he cried, his eyes sparkling. "But that's a small thing."
"I trust in small things first," she answered.
"And great afterwards!"
She had much ado not to laugh, he looked at her so piteously, his hands clasped. "Perhaps," she said. "At any rate the future will show. Here is the note." She passed it to him quickly, with one eye on the windows. "You will tell no one, you will mention it to no one; but you will see that it reaches his hands to-night."
"It shall if I live," Tom answered fervently. "To whom am I to deliver it?"
"To Sir Hervey."