He looked hastily and angrily round. There stood Anne with a lamp in her hand. "What now?" said he, trying to speak indifferently. "What brings you here so late?" "I might ask what keeps you up so late," returned Anne. "You seem to have little regard to the repose of your guest, that you make such a noise." "No fear of disturbing him, honest man," said Jack. "He is snoring like a porpoise, this minute, and I dare say he sleeps all the better for his unwonted exercise. He is a kind, good-natured man, though he may have his little infirmities, like the rest of us." "It skills not talking of him," said Anne, entering the room, and closing the door. "Jack, what have you been doing, this night?" "I have been burning some papers, if it imports you to know," replied Jack, not altogether pleased with the tone Anne assumed. "Jack, have you destroyed your vile, heretical books?" "I have no vile, heretical books, Sister Anne; therefore I have no opportunity to destroy them. Let me ask you in turn, since questions are the fashion, what has brought you to my room at this time of night?" "It is, indeed, a time of night for all honest folks to be abed, unless they watch, as a duty," said Anne; "but if I had been inclined to sleep, I could not do so. What were you and my father talking about, so long?" "You had better ask my father, if you desire to know," replied Jack. "If he sees fit to tell you his business, I can have no objection, but I do not think he would thank me for repeating it." Anne stood silent, a moment. Then she said, "Jack, where has Sister Barbara gone?" "She has gone to her friends, as she told you." "That is not answering my question. I ask you to whither she has gone." "And I reply, Sister Anne, that even if I knew, I would not tell you." "You mean to say that I am not to be trusted." "Even so." "Jack," said Anne, setting down the lamp, and coming nearer to her brother, "do you know that Father Barnaby is returned, and is, even now, in Bridgewater?" "I knew he had returned, but not that he was here," replied Jack. "How do you know that he is here? Have you already seen him?" "No; that is—Jack, do you mean still to persist in your heresy? Do you mean to draw down disgrace and ruin on your father's house, to break his heart and mine, all that you may follow your own wicked and headstrong fancies? Are you so much wiser than all the world? What chance have you had to learn so much more than I, that you are so confident in your own opinion?" "To your first question," replied Jack, "I answer that I do mean, God helping me, to hold fast even to the death, to His truth which you call heresy. I do not pretend to be wiser than all the world, but if I see all the world wrong, that does not excuse me for being wrong also. I am not following my own will or conceit, but the Word of God, and I must go whither it leads me, though it be to prison and death as it led Agnes Harland, and has led many another."