“I do not pretend that it is a fortress,” said the young man, smiling gravely.  “But it may serve to keep out a country constable.  And, indeed, it is the best I can contrive in this house.”

CHAPTER VII

I

Marjorie found it curious, even to herself, how the press that faced the foot of the two beds where she and Alice slept side by side, became associated in her mind with the thought of Robin; and she began to perceive that it was largely with the thought of him in her intention that the idea had first presented itself of having the cell constructed at all.  It was not that in her deliberate mind she conceived that he would be hunted, that he would fly here, that she would save him; but rather in that strange realm of consciousness which is called sometimes the Imagination, and sometimes by other names—­that inner shadow-show on which move figures cast by the two worlds—­she perceived him in this place....

It was in the following winter that she was reminded of him by other means than those of his letters.

* * * * *

The summer and autumn had passed tranquilly enough, so far as this outlying corner of England was concerned.  News filtered through of the stirring world outside, and especially was there conveyed to her, through Alice for the most part, news that concerned the fortunes of Catholics.  Politics, except in this connection, meant little enough to such as her.  She heard, indeed, from time to time vague rumours of fighting, and of foreign Powers; and thought now and again of Spain, as of a country that might yet be, in God’s hand, an instrument for the restoring of God’s cause in England; she had heard, too, in this year, of one more rumour of the Queen’s marriage with the Duke d’Alencon, and then of its final rupture.  But these matters were aloof from her; rather she pondered such things as the execution of two more priests at York in August, Mr. Lacy and Mr. Kirkman, and of a third, Mr. Thompson, in November at the same place.  It was on such affairs as these that she pondered as she went about her household business, or sat in the chamber upstairs with Mistress Alice; and it was of these things that she talked with the few priests that came and went from time to time in their circuits about Derbyshire.  It was a life of quietness and monotony inconceivable by those who live in towns.  Its sole incident lay in that life which is called Interior....

It was soon after the New Year that she met the squire of Matstead face to face.

* * * * *

She and Alice, with Janet and a man riding behind, were on their way back from Derby, where they had gone for their monthly shopping.  They had slept at Dethick, and had had news there of Mr. Anthony, who was again in the south on one of his mysterious missions, and started again soon after dawn next day to reach home, if they could, for dinner.