in all the world, Myles; but I had thought that it would make thee feel
more easy, to think that the Earl was not against thee. And, indeed,
from all thou has told me, I do soothly think that he and Sir James mean
to befriend thee and hold thee privily in kind regard."

"Then why doth he not stand forth like a man and befriend me and my
father openly, even if it be to his own peril?" said Myles, reverting
stubbornly to what he had first spoken.

Gascoyne did not answer, but lay for a long while in silence. "Knowest
thou," he suddenly asked, after a while, "who is this great enemy of
whom Sir James speaketh, and who seeketh so to drive thy father to
ruin?"

"Nay," said Myles, "I know not, for my father hath never spoken of these
things, and Sir James would not tell me. But this I know," said he,
suddenly, grinding his teeth together, "an I do not hunt him out some
day and slay him like a dog--" He stopped abruptly, and Gascoyne,
looking askance at him, saw that his eyes were full of tears, whereupon
he turned his looks away again quickly, and fell to shooting pebbles out
through the open window with his finger and thumb.

"Thou wilt tell no one of these things that I have said?" said Myles,
after a while.

"Not I," said Gascoyne. "Thinkest thou I could do such a thing?"

"Nay," said Myles, briefly.

Perhaps this talk more than anything else that had ever passed between