e'er unto Arthur?"

"Wholly free, Father. I ne'er gave him to wit otherwise."

Sir Thomas believed her; Rachel did not. The next thing, in the
squire's honest eyes, was to let Arthur know that Lucrece was about to
marry Sir Piers,--not directly, since Arthur himself had made no open
declaration; but he proposed to go down to the parsonage, and mention
the fact, as if incidentally, in Arthur's presence. He found Lucrece
rather averse to this scheme.

"It should but trouble the poor lad," she said. "Why not leave him
discover the same as matters shall unfold them?"

"Tom!" said Rachel to her brother apart, "go thou down, and tell Arthur
the news. I am afeared Lucrece hath some cause, not over good, for
wishing silence kept."

"Good lack!" cried the worried Squire. "Wellnigh would I that every one
of my childre had been a lad! These maidens be such changeable and
chargeable gear, I verily wis not what to do withal."

"Bide a while, Tom, till Jack hath been in the Court a year or twain;
maybe then I shall hear thee to wish that all had been maids."

Down to the parsonage trudged the puzzled and unhappy man, and found
that Arthur was at home. He chatted for a short time with the family in
general, and then told the ladies, as a piece of news which he expected
to interest them, that his daughter Lucrece was about to be married.
Had he not intentionally kept his eyes from Arthur while he spoke, he
would have seen that the young man went white to the lips.

"Eh, _ma foi_!" said Mrs Rose.

"With whom shall she wed?" asked Mrs Tremayne.

"Sir Thomas, is that true?" was the last remark--in hoarse accents, from
Arthur.

"It is true, my lad. Have I heard truly, that you would not have it
so?"

Mrs Tremayne looked at her son in a mixture of astonishment and dismay.
It had never occurred to her guileless, unsuspicious mind that the
object of his frequent visits to Enville Court could be any one but
Clare.

"Sir, I cry you mercy," said Arthur with some dignity. "I do readily
acknowledge that I ought not to have left you in the dark. But to speak
truth, it was she, not I, that would not you should be told."

"That would not have me told what, Arthur?"

"That I loved her," said Arthur, his voice slightly tremulous. "And--
she _said_ she loved me."

"She told me that she had given thee no encouragement to speak to me."

"To speak with you--truth. Whene'er I did approach that matter, she
alway deterred me