We must not let Mr. FitzHerbert know that he is found out."
"No," said the girl. "But to get a view of it.... And a copy of it, to
send to his family."
Again the two looked each at the other in silence--as if they were
equals--the old man and the girl.
II
It was the last night before the Londoners were to return.
They had lived royally these last three months. The agent of the Council
had had a couple of the best rooms in the inn that looked on to the
market-square, where he entertained his friends, and now and then a
magistrate or two. Even Mr. Audrey, of Matstead, had come to him once
there, with another, but had refused to stay to supper, and had ridden
away again alone.
Downstairs, too, his men had fared very well indeed. They knew how to
make themselves respected, for they carried arms always now, since the
unfortunate affair a day after the arrival, when two of them had been
gravely battered about by two rustic servants, who, they learned, were
members of a Popish household in the town. But all the provincial
fellows were not like this. There was a big man, half clerk and half
man-servant to a poor little lawyer, who lived across the square--a man
of no wit indeed, but, at any rate, one of means and of generosity, too,
as they had lately found out--means and generosity, they understood,
that were made possible by the unknowing assistance of his master. In a
word it was believed among Mr. Topcliffe's men that all the refreshment
which they had lately enjoyed, beyond that provided by their master, was
at old Mr.
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