Mr Tremayne and Arthur came in to supper that evening. The former quietly watched the state of affairs without appearing to notice anything. He saw that Don Juan, who sat by Lucrece, paid her the most courteous attention; that Lucrece received it with a thinly-veiled air of triumph; that Blanche's eyes constantly followed, the young Spaniard: and he came to the conclusion that the affair was more complicated than he had originally supposed. He waited, however, till Arthur and Lysken were both away, until he said anything at home. When those young persons were safely despatched to bed, Mr and Mrs Tremayne and Mrs Rose drew together before the fire, and discussed the state of affairs at Enville Court. "Now, what thinkest, Robin?" inquired Mrs Rose. "Is Blanche, _la pauvrette_! as fully taken with Don Juan as Barbara did suppose?" "I am afeared, fully." "And Don Juan?" "If I mistake not, is likewise taken with Blanche: but I doubt somewhat if he be therein as wholehearted as she." "And what say the elders?" asked Mrs Tremayne. "Look on with _eyes_ which see nought. But, nathless, there be one pair of eyes that see; and Blanche's path is not like to run o'er smooth." "What, Mistress Rachel?" "Nay, she is blind as the rest. I mean Lucrece." "Lucrece! Thinkest she will ope the eyes of the other?" "I think she casteth about to turn Don Juan's her way." "Alack, poor Blanche!" said Mrs Tremayne. "Howso the matter shall go, mefeareth she shall not 'scape suffering." "She is no match for Lucrece," observed Mrs Rose. "Truth: but I am in no wise assured Don Juan is not," answered Mr Tremayne with a slightly amused look. "As for Blanche, she is like to suffer; and I had well-nigh added, she demeriteth the same: but it will do her good, Thekla. At the least, if the Lord bless it unto her--be assured I meant not to leave out that." "The furnace purifieth the gold," said Mrs Tremayne sadly: "yet the heat is none the less fierce for that, Robin." "Dear heart, whether wouldst thou miss the suffering rather, and the purifying, or take both together?" "It is soon over, Thekla," said her mother, quietly. During the fierce heat of the Marian persecution, those words had once been said to Marguerite Rose. She had failed to realise them then. The lesson was learned now--thirty-five years later. "Soon over, to look back, dear Mother," replied Mrs Tremayne. "Yet it never seems short to them that be in the furnace." Mrs Rose turned rather suddenly to her son-in-law. "Robin, tell me, if thou couldst have seen thy life laid out before thee on a map, and it had been put to thy choice to bear the Little Ease, or to leave go,--tell me what thou hadst chosen?" For Mr Tremayne had spent several months in that horrible funnel-shaped prison, aptly termed Little Ease, and had but just escaped from it with life. He paused a moment, and his face grew very thoughtful.