"Afraid!" she answered, "of what? Is not God with me?" And that strangely inspired look came into her face. "I feel as if my place were here, as if at last I had found my appointed task. Go, and do not trouble about me or your father."
Reginald kissed her hand.
"You are wonderful, Mother," he said. "I will return this evening before the prison gates close." And so he left her.
As Mistress Newbolt stood in the passage she heard cries and moans, loud voices, and bitter plaints.
"Are those the prisoners?" she asked of Knight, the jailer.
"Yes," he answered, "they are hungry dogs to-day. They declared that the morning allowance of food was insufficient. There was not a hunch of bread for each man, and it was sour, not fit to cast to the dogs."
"How was it so?" asked Mistress Newbolt.
The keeper shrugged his shoulders.
"How can I tell?" he said. "It is bought by contract. As we get it we give it them. Those who have no money of their own, and no friends, come badly off. Your husband is sleeping, will you come and look at them?"
Mistress Newbolt acquiesced.