Cautiously she stole up to the window. She heard a sound of voices, the clatter of pewter, then it was Jack Catlin who spoke-- "Well, young sir, I'm beholden to you for your company, not to speak of your ale. 'Twould have been uncommon lonesome to bide here by myself; and noo, if I weren't afraid of the bogles, I reckon I'd go to bed." "Oh, surely you can have nought to fear from bogles," answered a voice. Could Audrey believe her ears. Could Richard be so mad as to sit hobnobbing with the very constable who was set to catch him? Yes--no question, it was his voice. "You can have naught to fear from bogles. By all they say, these Cremers have been always on the king's side, so the ghosts in their house are bound to respect the majesty of the law." "Majesty of the law!" repeated the constable. "'Tis a fine saying! The Majesty of the law! Ay, ay, here I sit to uphold the majesty of the law. I reckon I'll goo to bed!" "Shall I lend you a hand up the stairs, good sir?" Richard's voice sounded dangerously demure, and then came a noise of scuffling and grunting that told the task of getting the representative of the law upstairs to be not altogether a light one. She waited till she heard Richard return to the kitchen, and then she tapped at the window. He started and turned; she tapped again, and with eager hands he flung the casement back. "In life or death, you are welcome!" he cried. Audrey's laugh brought him back to common life. "I am no ghost!" she cried merrily; "but I am escaped like a bird from the snare, and I have mighty news to tell. Give me your hand, and help me in by the window, for I fear unbarring the door may awake your boon companion." His face still white with agitation, Harrison leant out, and lifted her slight form to the window-sill. "Truly I thought it was your spirit," he began, half apologetically; "your face was so white in the moonlight, and----" "I am indeed no ghost, as yet," she laughed, as she slid down into the room. "Pluck up all your courage, good brother, for I have such a fearsome and wonderful budget of news to unfold, as is fit to make a fresh chapter to the 'Princess of Cleves!'" The shamefacedness she had feared had vanished. Harrison's unexpected agitation had put all thoughts of her own feelings out of her head. Her only wish was to laugh him out of the bewilderment that still kept him gazing at her as if he feared to trust his eyes. "I do solemnly declare to you that neither am I a ghost, nor did I ride hither on a broomstick; witness the mud upon my shoes! But my adventure is marvellous enough for all that. But before I tell it I must inquire into this strange fashion of housekeeping! What hours are these to keep, sir? Such junketings and revellings! Fie, fie! But in sad earnest, how dared you venture on such a wild prank! What blessed dulness was it that kept Jack Catlin from guessing you?"