"I cannot do it," she said.
Anthony made a little gesture of resignation. But, indeed, he had
scarcely hoped to persuade her. He knew it was a formidable thing to ask
of a countrybred maid.
"Then we must do as well as we can," he said. "In any case, I must go.
There is a priest I have to meet in any case; he is returning as soon as
he has bestowed the rest."
"Yes?"
"His name is Ballard. He is known as Fortescue, and passes himself off
as a captain. You would never know him for a priest."
"He is returning, you say?"
A shade of embarrassment passed over the young man's face, and Marjorie
saw that there was something behind which she was not to know.
"Yes," he said, "I have business with him. He is not to come over on the
mission yet, but only to bring the others and see them safe--"
He broke off suddenly.
"Why, I was forgetting," he cried. "Our Robin is coming too. I had a
letter from him, and another for you."
He searched in the breast of his coat, and did not see the sudden
rigidity that fell on the girl. For a moment she sat perfectly still;
her heart had leapt to her throat, it seemed, and was hammering
there.... But by the time he had found the letter she was herself again.
"Here it is," he said.
She took it; but made no movement to open it.
"But he is not to be a priest for five years yet?" she said quietly.
"No; but they send them sometimes as servants and such like, to make a
party seem what it is not, as well as to learn how to avoid her Grace's
servants.
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