I cannot tell all the
master has done, but I know that they have tried to catch him for a long
time. He has been helping people to escape, they say. You don't know
what it has been like in the West, mistress."
"Something of it, I know," said Barbara.
"One night Mr. Crosby came to my mother's cottage to see me," the girl
went on. "He told me something of his danger, and said that if anything
happened to him, or if I were in danger, I was to go to Aylingford Abbey
and ask for you; if I could not see you I was to ask for Martin the
fiddler."
"Well?"
"I was soon in trouble, mistress, and went to Aylingford. You were not
there, nor was the fiddler. I was asked what I wanted, but I would not
say. I suppose the servant went to ask his master, for Sir John Lanison
himself came out to me."
"You did not tell him who you were?"
"I just said I was in trouble, and asked where I could find you. He
laughed and said I wasn't the first young woman who had got into
trouble, and he said--"
"You need not repeat it," said Barbara; "it was doubtless something
insulting about me."
"Indeed it was, mistress, but he told me where I should find you.
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