'And Woman,' Mr. Wogan thought, but George ran on, 'Scrope it was who wrote the ballad, for no enemy but Scrope knew what the writer knew. Lady Mary is a friend. Lady Oxford is innocent, thank God--I say it with a humble heart--and I am not the cause of the ruin.' George's eyes shone like those of a man reprieved. Wogan shook his friend's hand; his own eyes were opened. ''Tis you are the devil,' he said. 'Scrope has hit everyone he hates, and blown up the plot.' 'His time will come,' said Kelly; 'but I hear Sam on the stair.' Mr. Wesley, tapping lightly, entered his room. 'Gentlemen,' he said, 'the outer door is open.' Mr. Wesley's anxiety was plainly to be read in his face. The two gentlemen bade him farewell, with many thanks for his hospitality. He accompanied them to the door, and they heard the bolt shot behind them as they stood in the cloister. 'Whither should they go?' both men reflected, silent. Mr. Wogan has remarked on a certain gaiety and easiness of mind caused on this occasion, he considers, by Mr. Wesley's Florence coming after his own Burgundy at supper. He was also elated by George's elation, for to find innocence in one whom he had suspected elevated Mr. Kelly's disposition. They were betrayed, true, but the bitterness of a betrayal by the woman he had loved left him the lighter when the apprehension of it had passed. One little point rankled in Mr. Wogan's mind in spite of all. Why had Lady Oxford bidden both of them to her rout? He came at an answer by a roundabout road. 'I must hurry home and burn my papers,' said Kelly, as soon as they were out in the cloister, with the door of the Dean's house shut behind them. Mr. Wogan, who had other notions, gripped his arm. 'By the way, did you burn my lady's invitation to her rout to-night? What did she say, George? Why did she invite you? And did you burn the note?' Mr. Kelly smote his hand on his brow. 'My wits were wool-gathering.' 'On Cupid's hedges,' said Wogan. 'But I locked the note up.' 'With the rest of the lady's letters in my dispatch box?' ''Faith, Nick, you are the devil. How did you know that?' 'Oh, I have divined your amorous use of my box.' 'But you are wrong. I had the box with the dangerous papers of the plot open on the table when I was reading the letter. Mrs. Kilburne knocked at the door. I did not know who it might be. I slipped the letter in on the top of the papers of the Plot, and locked the box before I opened the door.' 'There it remains then? Well, her Ladyship's note is in the better company. But what did she say? Did she give a reason for your meeting?' 'The chief thing, after the usual compliments, was that she had most important news, that might not be written, to give me about Mr. Farmer's affairs. Probably she may have had an inkling of the discovery and wished to warn me.' 'We must see her,' said Wogan, whose curiosity was on edge from the first about this party of pleasure. 'But my papers--I must burn my papers.'