ntinued to look at him, but, by this time, terror began to be
succeeded by surprise, and surprise by suspicion. Dick, who could read
these changes on her face, became alarmed for his own safety in that
hostile house.

"Fair maid," he said, affecting easiness, "suffer me to kiss your hand,
in token ye forgive my roughness, and I will even go."

"Y'are a strange monk, young sir," returned the young lady, looking him
both boldly and shrewdly in the face; "and now that my first
astonishment hath somewhat passed away, I can spy the layman in each
word you utter. What do ye here? Why are ye thus sacrilegiously tricked
out? Come ye in peace or war? And why spy ye after Lady Brackley like a
thief?"

"Madam," quoth Dick, "of one thing I pray you to be very sure: I am no
thief. And even if I come here in war, as in some degree I do, I make no
war upon fair maids, and I hereby entreat them to copy me so far, and to
leave me be. For, indeed, fair mistress, cry out--if such be your
pleasure--cry but once, and say what ye have seen, and the poor
gentleman before you is merely a dead man. I cannot think ye would be
cruel," added Dick; and taking the girl's hand gently in both of his, he
looked at her with courteous admiration.

"Are ye, then, a spy--a Yorkist?" asked the maid.

"Madam," he replied, "I am indeed a Yorkist, and, in some sort, a spy.
But that which bringeth me into this house, the same which will win for
me the pity and interest of your kind heart, is neither of York nor
Lancaster. I will wholly put my life in your discretion. I am a lover,
and my name----"

But here the young lady clapped her hand suddenly upon Dick's mouth,
looked hastily up and down and east and west, and, seeing the coast
clear, began to drag the young man, with great strength and vehemence,
up-stairs.

"Hush!" she said, "and come! Shalt talk hereafter."

Somewhat bewildered, Dick suffered himself to be pulled up-stairs,
bustled along a corridor, and thrust suddenly into a chamber, lit, like
so many of the others, by a blazing log upon the hearth.

"Now," said the young lady, forcing him down upon a stool, "sit ye there
and attend my sovereign good pleasure. I have life and death over you,
and I will not scruple to abuse my power. Look to yourself; y' 'ave
cruelly mauled my arm. He knew not I was a maid, quoth he! Had he known
I was a maid, he had ta'en his belt to me, forsooth!"

And with these words, she whipped out of the room and left