I heard nothing of this matter, however; and it was just as well, for I had enough to bear without it. At last, I bethought me that this anxious care and suspense was a distrusting of Providence and a direct disobedience to His commands who hath forbidden us to be anxious about the morrow. I carried my trouble to the right place, and asking for grace to submit myself in all things to His Holy will, I strove to set myself with all diligence about my usual occupations; a course I have ever found the best under the like circumstances. So I heard the children's lessons—I grieved that I had not begun them before—finished a muffler I was working for Dame Yates, and played over all my music lessons diligently, wishing to have them at my fingers' ends, seeing I did not know when I should over touch an instrument again. I was busied thus, one evening between daylight and dark. It was now the latter end of August, and the evenings were somewhat chilly. But no one had yet thought of lighting a fire. Master Yates was dozing in his great chair, and his wife and daughter sat together on the settee. They were both fond of music, and Dolly indeed, was herself no mean performer upon the viol. * It was growing quite dark, so that I could hardly see the keys, and Dame Hannah was talking of lighting the lamp, when I heard the hasty tramp of a horse outside in the court. It was nothing strange, for Master Yates's hospitality was well-known; and many a traveler stopped with us for the night, but that odd kind of prescience which hath accompanied me all my life, told me in a minute that this was no belated guest. Master Yates rose and went to the door, and Dame Hannah hasted to strike a light. * The English were the most musical people in Europe in those days, and a man was hardly accounted educated who could not sing at sight. In a moment I heard the former returning, and, by the light of the lamp, I saw behind him a man whose figure I seemed dimly to remember. He came straight up to me with scarce a passing salutation to the others, and held out to me the token I had been expecting, the Duke's own seal-ring. "Must I go?" I asked, involuntarily. It did seem to me somehow like a supernatural summons; as if a token had been brought me from another world to bid me be gone. "You must, and instantly!" answered the messenger in a half whisper. "Time passes, and must not be spent in delay." I flew to my chamber, and was quickly arrayed in such a riding dress as country dames are wont to wear to church and market, and which, with Dame Hannah's help, I had prepared for this very occasion. It could not have been ten minutes that I was absent, yet when I returned, I found my conductor seemingly chafing at even that short delay. "It is well!" said he, and his tone was to me as great a puzzle as his figure and bearing. His face I could not see, as he kept on his beaver, and his cloak was wrapped about his chin. "Have you no more to carry than this?"