Alice’s manner seemed curiously different from that of the quiet woman who had sat so patiently beside Marjorie in the manor among the hills:  a certain air of authority and dignity sat on her now that she was back in her own place.

“Is Mrs. FitzHerbert here?” she asked from the groom who helped her to the ground.

“Yes, mistress; she came from the inn this morning, and—­”

“Well?”

“She is in a great taking, mistress.  She would eat nothing, they said.”

Alice nodded.

“You had best be off to the inn,” she said, with a jerk of her head.  “A London fellow insulted us just now, and Sampson and Mallow—­”

She said no more.  The man who held her horse slipped the reins into the hands of the younger groom who stood by him, and was away and out of the court in an instant.  Marjorie smiled a little, astonished at her own sense of exultation.  The blows were not to be all one side, she perceived.  Then she followed Alice into the house.

As they came through into the hall by the side-door that led through from the court where they had dismounted, a figure was plainly visible in the dusky light, going to and fro at the further end, with a quick, nervous movement.  The figure stopped as they advanced, and then darted forward, crying out piteously: 

“Ah! you have come, thank God! thank God!  They will not let me see him.”

“Hush! hush!” said Alice, as she caught her in her arms.

“Mr. Bassett has been here,” moaned the figure, “and he says it is Topcliffe himself who has come down on the matter....  He says he is the greatest devil of them all; and Thomas—­”

Then she burst out crying again.

* * * * *

It was an hour before they could get the full tale out of her.  They took her upstairs and made her sit down, for already a couple of faces peeped from the buttery, and the servants would have gathered in another five minutes; and together they forced her to eat and drink something, for she had not tasted food since her arrival at the inn yesterday; and so, little by little, they drew the story out.

Mr. Thomas and his wife were actually on their way from Norbury when the arrest had been made.  Mr. Thomas had intended to pass a couple of nights in Derby on various matters of the estates; and although, his wife said, he had been somewhat silent and quiet since the warning had come to him from Mr. Audrey, even he had thought it no danger to ride through Derby on his way to Padley.  He had sent a servant ahead to order rooms at the inn for those two nights, and it was through that, it appeared, that the news of his coming had reached the ears of the authorities.  However that was, and whether the stroke had been actually determined upon long before, or had been suddenly decided upon at the news of his coming, it fell out that, as the husband and wife were actually within sight of Derby, on turning a corner they had