t cloak and tight
cap. The old man took him by the sleeve, drawing him to the fire that
burned day and night in winter.

"Ralph--Ralph, my son," he said, "I must thank you for last night."

"You have to thank yourself only, sir, and my mother. I could do no
otherwise."

"It is you--" began his father.

"It is certainly not Nick, sir. The hot fool nearly provoked me."

"But you hate such mummery yourself, my son?"

Ralph hesitated.

"It is not seemly--" began his father again.

"It is certainly not seemly; but neither are the common folk seemly."

"Did you have much business with them, my son?" Ralph smiled in the
firelight.

"Why, no, sir. I told them who I was. I charged myself with the burden."

"And you will not be in trouble with my Lord?"

"My Lord has other matters to think of than a parcel of mummers."

Then they separated; and Ralph rode down the drive with his servants
behind him. Neither father nor son had said a word of any return.
Neither had Ralph had one private word with Beatrice during his three
days' stay. Once he had come into the parlour to find her going out at
the other door; and he had wondered whether she had heard his step and
gone out on purpose. But he knew very well that under the superficial
courtesy between him and her there lay something deeper--some passionate
emotion vibrated like a beam between them; but he did not know, even on
his side and still less on hers, whether that emotion were one of love
or loathing. It was partly from the discomfort of the charged
atmosphere, partly from a shrinking from thanks and explanations that he
had determined to go up to London a day earlier than he had intended; he
had a hatred of personal elaborateness.

* * * * *

He found Cromwell, on his arrival in London, a little less moody than he
had been in the previous week; for he was busy with preparations for the
Parliament that was to meet in April; and to the occupation that this
gave him there was added a good deal of business connected with Henry's
negotiations with the Emperor. The dispute, that at present centred
round the treatment of Englishmen in Spain, and other similar matters,
in reality ran its roots far deeper; and there were a hundred details
which occupied the minister. But there was still a hint of storm in the
air; Cromwell spoke brusquely once or twice without cause, and Ralph
refrained from saying anything about the affair at Overfield,