"Nay, some do boldly affirm that he has been seen i' these very woods,"
continued he, lowering his voice to a whisper.
"Which Heaven forefend!" said the wary dame. "I would not that he should
draw us down with him to the same gulf wherein his fortune is
o'erwhelmed. No luck that woman ever brought him from o'er sea, and now
she's gone"--
"They say that she hath escaped to Flanders," said Oliver, hastily
interrupting her.
"I wish he had been so fortunate," said the dame; "what says our cousin
Talbot?"
"Hush, dame; our plans are not yet ripe. But more of this anon."
Elizabeth listened with more interest than usual. Every word was eagerly
devoured, and with the last sentence she could not forbear inquiring--
"And Edmund?--surely Edmund Talbot is not"--
"What?" sternly inquired her father; "what knowest thou of--? Said I
aught whereby thou shouldst suspect us?"
"Hush, thou foolish one," said the more cautious dame; "thy thought
alone was privy to it, and so no more. There be others listening."
The moonbeams now crept softly into the chambers, whither, too, crept
the weary household; the master and his wife remaining for a short time
together in the hall, apparently in earnest discussion.
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