And what can that be but that--"
Marjorie turned yet whiter. She sighed once as if to steady herself. She
could not speak, but she nodded.
"Yes, Mistress Manners," said the old man. "I make no doubt at all that
he hath promised to assist him against them all--against Mr. John his
father, it may be, or Mr. Bassett, or God knows whom! And yet still
feigning to be true! And that is not all."
She looked at him. She could not conceive worse than this, if indeed it
were true.
"And do you think," he continued, "that Mr. Topcliffe will do all this
for love, or rather, for mere malice? I have heard more of the fellow
since he hath been in Derby than in all my life before; and, I tell you,
he is for feathering his own nest if he can." He stopped.
"Mistress, did you know that he had been out to Padley three or four
times since he came to Derby?... Well, I tell you now that he has. Mr.
John was away, praise God; but the fellow went all round the place and
greatly admired it."
"He went out to see what he could find?" asked the girl, still
whispering.
The other shook his head.
"No, mistress; he searched nothing. I had it all from one of his
fellows, through one of mine. He searched nothing; he sat a great while
in the garden, and ate some of the fruit; he went through the hall and
the rooms, and admired all that was to be seen there. He went up into
the chapel-room, too, though there was nothing there to tell him what it
was; and he talked a great while to one of the men about the farms, and
the grazing, and such-like, but he meddled with nothing.
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