Robin! Master Arden will take horse! Go, Arden, go! or as God lives I
will strike you where you stand. No,--no hand-touching! Can you not see
that you heat the iron past all bearing? A moment since and I could have
sworn I saw behind you Henry Sedley! Go, go!"

He sank upon the settle beneath the window, and buried his head in his
arms. For a long minute Arden stood with a drawn face, then turning,
left the house and left the place, for the knowledge was borne in upon
him that here and now friendship could give no aid. When, half an hour
later, he arrived at the Blue Swan in the neighboring town and called
for _aqua-vitæ_, mine host, jolly and round and given over to
facetiousness, swore that to look so white and bewitched-like the
gentleman must have gathered mandrakes from Ferne church-yard, or have
dined with the traitor knight himself.

That same afternoon, when the rays of the sun were lower, Ferne went
into his garden and lifted his bared brow, that perchance the air might
cool it. It was the quiet hour when the goal of the sun is in view, and
the shadows of the fruit trees lay long upon the grass. There were
breaches in the garden walls where they had crumbled into ruin, and
through these openings, beyond dark masses of all-covering ivy, sight
might be had of old trees set in alleys, of primrose-yellowed downs, and
of a distant cliff-head where sheep grazed, while far below gleamed a
sapphire line of sea. Tender quiet, fair stillness, marked the spot. Day
mused as she was going: Evening, drawing near, held her finger to her
lips. A tall flower, keeping fairy guard beside three ruinous steps,
moved not her slightest bell, but there came one note of a
hidden thrush.

Full in the midst of a grass-plot was set a semi-circular bench of