"Yes?" he inquired, but the
tone was now forbidding.
Nevertheless she was not deterred. "Mr. Butler is Lady O'Moy's
brother," she said.
He stared a moment, taken aback. "Good God! Ye don't say so,
child! Her brother! O'Moy's brother-in-law! And O'Moy never
said a word to me about it.
"What should he say? Sir Terence himself pledged his word to
the Council of Regency that Mr. Butler would be shot when taken."
"Did he, egad!" He was still further surprised out of his
sternness. "Something of a Roman this O'Moy in his conception of
duty! Hum! The Council no doubt demanded this?"
"So I understand, my lord. Lady O'Moy, realising her brother's
grave danger, is very deeply troubled."
"Naturally," he agreed. "But what can I do, Miss Armytage?
What were the actual facts, do you happen to know?"
She recited them, putting the case bravely for the scapegrace Mr.
Butler, dwelling particularly upon the error under which he was
labouring, that he had imagined himself to be knocking at the gates
of a monastery of Dominican friars, that he had broken into the
convent because denied admittance, and because he suspected some
treacherous reason for that denial.
He heard her out, watching her with those keen eyes of his the
while.
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