CHAPTER VII
TREPANNED
Master Lionel was absent most of the following day from Penarrow, upon a
pretext of making certain purchases in Truro. It would be half-past
seven when he returned; and as he entered he met Sir Oliver in the hall.
"I have a message for you from Godolphin Court," he announced, and saw
his brother stiffen and his face change colour. "A boy met me at the
gates and bade me tell you that Mistress Rosamund desires a word with
you forthwith."
Sir Oliver's heart almost stopped, then went off at a gallop. She asked
for him! She had softened perhaps from her yesterday's relentlessness.
She would consent at last to see him!
"Be thou blessed for these good tidings!" he answered on a note of high
excitement. "I go at once." And on the instant he departed. Such was
his eagerness, indeed, that under the hot spur of it he did not even
stay to fetch that parchment which was to be his unanswerable advocate.
The omission was momentous.
Master Lionel said no word as his brother swept out. He shrank back a
little into the shadows. He was white to the lips and felt as he would
stifle. As the door closed he moved suddenly. He sprang to follow Sir
Oliver. Conscience cried out to him that he could not do this thing.
But Fear was swift to answer that outcry. Unless he permitted what was
planned to take its course, his life might pay the penalty.
He turned, and lurched into the dining-room upon legs that trembled.
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