"Call it that, an you will." "A secret that concerns his life?" "That I did not say." "No. It was a guess. A right one methinks." "Then if you think so, sir, why not let me go to him?" "So that you may warn him?" "You were merely guessing, sir...." "That you may tell him not to continue his journey," he insisted, speaking less restrainedly now, as he leaned forward closer to her, her fair curls almost brushing against his cheek as they fluttered in the draught. "I did not say so," she murmured. "Because there is a trap laid for him ... a trap of which you know...." "No, no!" she cried involuntarily. "A trap into which he may fall ... unknowingly ... on his way to the north." "You say so, sir," she moaned, "not I...." "Assassins are on his track ... an attempt will be made against his life ... the murderers lie in wait for him ... even now ... and you, mejuffrouw, who know who those murderers are...." A cry of anguish rose to her lips. "No, no, no," she cried, "it is false ... you are only guessing ... remember that I have told you nothing." But already the tense expression on his face had gone. He drew himself up to his full height once more and heaved a deep breath which sounded like a sigh of satisfaction. "Yet in your candour, mejuffrouw, you have told me much," he said quietly, "confirmed much that I only vaguely guessed. The Stadtholder's life is in peril and you hold in your feeble little hands the threads of the conspiracy which threatens him ... is that not why you are here, mejuffrouw ... a prisoner, as you say, at the good-will of my employer? I am only guessing, remember, but on your face, meseems that I can read that I do guess aright." "Then you will do what I ask?" she exclaimed with a happy little gasp of renewed hope. "That, mejuffrouw, is I fear me impossible," he said quietly. "Impossible? But--just now...." "Just now," he rejoined with affected carelessness, "I said, mejuffrouw, that I would on no account escort you to Delft without knowing what your purpose is with the Prince of Orange. Even now I do not know, I merely guessed." "But," she entreated, "if I do own that you have guessed aright--partly at any rate--if I do tell you that the Stadtholder's life might be imperilled if I did not give him a timely word of warning, if...." "Even if you told me all that, mejuffrouw," he broke in lightly, "if you did bring your pride down so far as to trust a miserable knave with a secret which he might sell for money on the morrow--even then, I fear me, I could not do what you ask." "But why not?" she insisted, her voice choking in her throat in the agony of terrible doubt and fear. "Because the man of whom you spoke just now, the man whom you love, mejuffrouw, has been more far-seeing, more prudent than you or I. He hath put it out of my power to render you this service." "How?"