n
angel?" said Groom William.

"It sounds well," she reluctantly answered. "Does Mr. Norton know you,
young man?"

"No, madam," said Stead, with much stumbling. "But I have seen him in
Bristol. My Lady Elmwood knew of me, and Sir George Elmwood too, and the
Dean could say I was honest."

"Which the face of you says better than your tongue," said the groom.
"Have with you then, my bold little elf," he added, taking the bridle of
the horse on which Ben was still seated. "Or one moment more. You knew
me, my lad--are there any others like to do so?"

"I had seen you, sir, at Bristol, and that is why I would not have you
shew yourself in Elmwood. But my sister has never seen you, and the only
neighbours who ever come in are the woodward and his wife. He served in
my Lord of Essex's army, but he has never seen you. Moreover, he was to
be at the squire's to-day helping to stack his corn. Ben, do you tell
Patience that _he_"--again taking refuge in a pronoun--"is a gentleman
in danger, and she must see to his safety for an hour or two till I come
back for him."

"A gentleman in danger," repeated Ben, anxious to learn his lesson.

"He and I will take care of that," said the grey-coated groom gaily, as
he turned the horse's head, and waved his hat in courtly fashion to the
lady so that Steadfast saw that his hair was cropped into black stubble.

"Ah!" said the lady with a sigh, for the loss of a Cavalier's locks was
a dreadful thing. "You know him then."

"I have seen him at Bristol," said Steadfast, with considerably less
embarrassment, though still in the clownish way he could not shake off.

"And you know how great is the trust you--nay, we have undertaken. But,
as he says, he has learnt the true fidelity of a leathern jerkin."

Then Jane Lane told Steadfast of the King's flight from Worcester, and
adventures at Boscobel with the Penderells, and how she had brought him
to Abbotsleigh, in hopes of finding a ship at Bristol, but that failing,
it was too perilous for him to remain there, so that she was helping him
as far as Castle Carey on his way to Trent.

Before they were clear of the wood, Stead asked her to pause. He knocked
off the tell-tale shoe with the help of a stone, threw it away into the
middle of a bramble, and then after a little consultation, she decided
on herself encountering the smith, not perhaps having much confidence in
the readiness of speech or invention of her companion.

When they arrived