her had expressly said that what was wanted was adverse
testimony against the Religious Houses; but that, Ralph knew very well,
was what was asked of him. They had talked a great deal about the
corruptions that the Visitors would no doubt find, and Cranmer had told
a story or two, with an appearance of great distress, of scandalous
cases that had come under his own notice. Cromwell too had pointed out
that such corruptions did incalculable evil; and that an immoral monk
did far more harm in a countryside than his holy brethren could do of
good. Both had said a word too about the luxury and riches to be found
in the houses of those who professed poverty, and of the injury done to
Christ's holy religion by such insincere pretences.

Ralph knew too, from previous meetings with the other Visitors, the kind
of work for which such men would be likely to be selected.

There was Dr. Richard Layton first, whom Ralph was to join in Sussex at
the end of September, a priest who had two or three preferments and
notoriously neglected them; Ralph had taken a serious dislike to him. He
was a coarse man who knew how to cringe effectively; and Ralph had
listened to him talking to Cromwell, with some dismay. But he would be
to a large extent independent of him, and only in his company at some of
the larger houses that needed more than one Visitor. Thomas Legh, too, a
young doctor of civil law, was scarcely more attractive. He was a man of
an extraordinary arrogance, carrying his head high, and looking about
him with insolently drooping eyes. Ralph had been at once amused and
angry to see him go out into the street after his interview with
Cromwell, where his horse and half-a-dozen footmen awaited him, and to
watch him ride off with the airs of a vulgar prince. The Welshman Ap
Rice too, and the red-faced bully, Dr. London, were hardly persons whom
he desired as associates, and the others were not much better; and Ralph
found himself feeling a little thankful that none of these men had been
in his house just now, when Cromwell and the Archbishop had called in
the former's carriage, and when Beatrice had met them there.

* * * * *

Ralph had a moment, ten minutes after Beatrice had left, when he was
inclined to snatch up his hat and go after Cromwell to tell him to do
his own dirty work; but his training had told, and he had laughed at the
folly of the thought. Why, of course, the work had to be done! England