They carried themselves even there, he said, as ordinary gentlemen
travelling together; two of them were supposed to be lawyers; he himself
passed as Mr. Ballard's servant. They heard mass when they could in the
larger towns, but even then not all together.
The landing in England had been easier, he said, than he had thought,
though he had learned afterwards that a helpful young man, who had
offered to show him to an inn in Folkestone, and in whose presence Mr.
Ballard had taken care to give him a good rating for dropping a
bag--with loud oaths--was a well-known informer. However, no harm was
done: Mr. Ballard's admirable bearing, and his oaths in particular, had
seemed to satisfy the young man, and he had troubled them no more.
Marjorie did not say much. She listened with a fierce attention, so much
interested that she was scarcely aware of her own interest; she looked
up, half betrayed into annoyance, when a placid laugh from Mistress
Alice at the table showed that another was listening too.
She too, then, had to give her news, and to receive messages for the
Derbyshire folk whom Robin wished to greet; and it was not until
Mistress Alice slipped out of the room that she uttered a word of what
she had been hoping all day she might have an opportunity to say.
"Mr. Audrey," she said (for she was careful to use this form of
address), "I wish you to pray for me. I do not know what to do."
He was silent.
"At present," she said, gathering courage, "my duty is clear.
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