"At Rome, whither we went in the train of my Lord Castlewaine the ambassador—and pretty company he was!" said Alwright, in disgust. "You know, my dear, between ourselves, Sir Edward was always inclined to side with whichever party was uppermost. So, after we went to London and to court, he began to look the way the king's party did—toward Rome, you know. He did not really go over, and perhaps he never meant to do so, but he read their books, and went to the chapel, and all that. So, when this embassy was sent out, Sir Edward must needs go along. It was a grief to my lady, though he made her health one reason for the journey, but you know she never opposed her husband." "Perhaps his majesty thought the journey to Rome would finish Sir Edward's conversion," said Winifred. "And so it did, indeed, my dear, but it was the wrong way. Sir Edward saw and heard so many things that no true English gentleman could swallow, that he became disgusted with the whole concern. Then he took one of the fevers they have there, and died in a few days. The priests came about him, and would have it that he died in the Church of Rome, but it was no such thing. And then, my lady was very ill and feeble for a long time after, so we could not leave when my Lord Castlewaine did—more by token, they say the pope never showed him the least bit of favor, after all. I must say, some of the foreign papists were very good to us—I shall always remember it of them, I am sure—but oh, Winifred, if you could only see the cooking, and the smells, and the old women! Well, my lady got better, at last, and then we came home as quickly as we could." "I tried every way to hear from you," said Winifred, "but I could not learn where Sir Edward had gone. When I first came here, I heard that Lady Corbet was cousin to my lady, and hoped to get news from her, but she could only tell me that my Lord Carew was dead, and my lady, she thought, was still abroad." "Yes, the poor gentleman is dead at last, and a good thing, too, for himself and everybody. Master Arthur is Lord Carew now. Much good it does him, since he cannot come home to enjoy it!" "And where is Master Arthur—I mean, my lord?" asked Winifred, suddenly very busy with her boiled chicken. "He has been all this time in far-away parts, fighting the Turks that they say the King of France has brought upon Christendom again. But now he hath returned to Holland, and is in the service of the Prince and Princess of Orange, God bless them!" "But how did you find me out, and why did my lady never answer the letter I sent her by Joseph the groom, after my mother died? Oh, Mrs. Alwright, if you know how I wearied for an answer to that letter!"