me come?" she cried.

"His letter will convey the request," answered Carford.

"Then I will go," said she. "I can't come to harm with him, and when I
have told him all, he won't allow me to go to France." For as yet my
lord did not know of what had befallen his daughter, nor did my lady,
whose sickness made her unfit to be burdened with such troublesome
matters.

"Indeed you would come to no harm with your father, if you found your
father," said Carford. "Come, I will tell you. Before you reach Dover my
lord will have gone from there. As soon as his letter to you was sent
the King made a pretext to despatch him into Cornwall; he wrote again to
tell you of his journey and bid you not come to Dover till he sends for
you. This letter he entrusted to a messenger of my Lord Arlington's who
was taking the road for London. But the Secretary's messengers know when
to hasten and when to loiter on the way. You are to have set out before
the letter arrives."

Barbara looked at him in bewilderment and terror; he was to all seeming
composed and spoke with an air of honest sincerity.

"To speak plainly, it is a trick," he said, "to induce you to return to
Dover. This M. de Fontelles has orders to bring you at all hazards, and
is armed with the King's authority in case my lord's bidding should not
be enough."

She sat for a while in helpless dismay. Carford had the wisdom not to
interrupt her thoughts; he knew that she was seeking for a plan of
escape and was willing to let her find that there was none.

"When do you say that M. de Fontelles will be here?" she asked at last.

"Late to-night or early to-morrow. He rested a few hours in London,
while I rode through, else I shouldn't have been here before him."

"And why are you come, my lord?" she asked.

"To serve you, madame," he answered simply.

She drew herself up, saying haughtily,

"You were not so ready to serve me at Dover."

Carford was not disconcerted by an attack that he must have foreseen; he
had the parry ready for the thrust.

"From the danger that I knew I guarded you, the other I did not know."
Then with a burst of well-feigned indignation he cried, "By Heaven, but
for me the French King would have been no peril to you; he would have
come too late."

She understood him and flushed painfully.

"When the enemy is mighty," he pursued, "we must fight by guile, not
force; when we can't oppose we must delay; we must check where we can't
stop. You know my