It is for to-night."
Very slowly Marjorie rose out of the glimmering depths of sleep into
which she had fallen on the hot August afternoon, sunk down upon the arm
of the great chair that stood by the parlour window, and saw Mrs. Thomas
radiant before her, waving a scrap of paper in her hand.
Nearly two months were passed; and as yet no opportunity had been given
to the prisoner's wife to visit him, and during that time it had been
impossible to go back into the hills and leave the girl alone. The heat
of the summer had been stifling, down here in the valley; a huge plague
of grasshoppers had ravaged all England; and there were times when even
in the grass-country outside Derby, their chirping had become
intolerable. The heat, and the necessary seclusion, and the anxiety had
told cruelly upon the country girl; Marjorie's face had perceptibly
thinned; her eyes had shadows above and beneath; yet she knew she must
not go; since the young wife had attached herself to her altogether,
finding Alice (she said) too dull for her spirits. Mr. Bassett was gone
again. There was no word of a trial; although there had been a hearing
or two before the magistrates; and it was known that Topcliffe
continually visited the prison.
One piece of news only had there been to comfort her during this time,
and that, that Mr. John's prediction had been fulfilled with regard to
the captured priest, Mr. Garlick, who, back from Rheims only a few
months, had been deported from England, since it was his first offence,
But he would soon be over again, no doubt, and next time with death as
the stake in the game.
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