mentioned the matter and moreover----"

"Ha!" cried my lady stamping her foot, "so he must be talking already!"

"Aye--to me, Bet, why not i' faith! And--though a Whig----"

"A flapdragon!" exclaimed my lady.

"I say though a Whig he is as ready to aid Charles into safety as you
or I. Nay, he hath even proffered to harbour him in his own house."

"Mm!" said my lady, smiling down at her roses, "I wonder why a Whiggish
soldier should run such risk for Charles, a stranger?"

"Because the Major chances to be the best, the bravest, the most
unselfish gentleman I have the honour to know!" replied the Viscount.

"Dear Pancras!" she sighed, "an you would talk with Charles, you shall,
so come your ways and be silent--Pancras dear!"

So she brought him into the house and, finger on lip, led him up back
stairways and along seldom used passages to a door small but remarkably
strong; here she paused to reach a key from a dark corner, a key of
massive proportions at sight of which the Viscount whistled.

"You see, Pan," she explained, fitting it to the lock, "Charles is
quite determined to get away at once for my sake, but I'm quite
determined he shall stay for his own sake, until I judge him
sufficiently recovered, and--hark to him, Pan, hark to my naughty
child!" She laughed as an impatient fist thumped the stout door from
within and a muffled voice reached them. "Be silent, sir!" she
commanded. Followed a sulky muttering, the door swung open and my lord
of Medhurst appeared, petulant and eager:

"What Pan!" he cried. "What Tom--Tommy lad! Y'see how she treats me!"

"Hush!" exclaimed my lady, closing the door.

"Gad, Charles!" exclaimed the Viscount as they embraced, "you're thin
and pale, is't your wound?"

"Nay--nay, I vow I'm well enough, Tom----"

"But I protest art worn to a shadow----"

"A shadow--aha!" His lordship laughed gaily. "Say a shade, Tom, a
ghost and you're in the right with a vengeance. But tell me the latest
town news, Tommy, who's in and who's out? Stands London where it
did----"

"Nay first, Charles, I'm here to smuggle you away to my Sussex place
there to keep you hid until I can arrange for you to cross into France.
'Twill be the simplest matter i' the world, Charles, I'll have a couple
of fast horses in the lane at midnight, we shall reach my place by dawn
or thereabouts. How say you?"

"Why I say, dear lad, 'tis all very well but you forget one thing."

"And that?"

"Your