"I think we had best stay where we are," said Patience, "and later we will take a barge and go up or down the river; surely there will be some air there!"
Agnes did not answer, she seemed to be thinking.
"Does not what I propose suit you, child?" asked Patience.
The girl threw herself on her knees beside her aunt.
"Dear," she said, "I have a great wish. I don't seem to care for anything else in London, but I want to find Ann Newbolt! How can we do it? You remember we heard that Reginald had gone abroad, and that Ann was living somewhere with her mother not far from Newgate."
"That is no good," said Patience; "it would be like hunting for a needle in a haystack. Besides, I am not sure that it would be well for you to find those Newbolts again. You see, if the king is determined to restore you to your own they must be driven out."
"I should hate that; oh, I should hate it terribly!" cried Agnes.
"But it must be well," said Patience. "Cromwell had no right to give what was not his own."
There was a pause, then Agnes looked up and said quietly:
"Jessie and I were looking through an old book which treated of the estates and lands in Westmorland, and we found De Lisle Abbey. Henry VIII seized it, drove the monks out, and gave it to a Sir Gilbert de Lisle--not my father, but one long before him. So you see, Aunt Patience, it was stolen land, and, what is worse, there was a curse upon it; the De Lisles were to be driven out by fire and sword, and so we have been. Let things be as they are, Aunt Patience, and let us live at Holt Farm and be happy once again."