"Why, provide for your safety--do you understand me now, Mr. Frank?"
"Less than ever, Miss Vernon," he answered. "I have not the most distant conception of what you mean."
"Why, then," said Diana, "to be plain, there is an information lodged with our nearest Justice of the Peace, Squire Inglewood, that you were concerned in a robbery of government papers and money sent to pay the troops in Scotland. A man with whom you travelled, and whom you certainly frightened, has lodged such a complaint against you. His name is Morris."
"Ay," said Diana, "and he swears you are the man who robbed him."
"Then Sir Hildebrand believes it?" cried Frank.
"He does," answered Diana, "and to tell the truth, so did I until this moment."
"Upon my word, I am obliged to you and my uncle for your opinion of me."
"Oh, it is nothing to be ashamed of," she said, smiling, "no mere highway robbery. The man was a government messenger. We are all Jacobites about here, and no man would have thought the worse of you for bidding him stand and deliver. Why, my uncle had a message from Squire Inglewood himself, that he had better provide for your safety by smuggling you over the border into Scotland."
"Tell me," said Frank, somewhat impatiently, "where does this Squire Inglewood live? I will go and answer the charge instantly and in person."
"Well said--I will go with you," said Diana, promptly, "it was never the Vernon way to desert a friend in time of need."
Frank tried to dissuade her from this, but he could not combat the girl's resolution. So they set off together for Inglewood Hall. As they entered the courtyard, they met Rashleigh just coming out.
Miss Vernon instantly challenged him, before he got time to make up a story.
"Rashleigh," she said, "you have heard of Mr. Frank's affair, and you have been over to the Justice talking about it."
"Certainly," he answered, "I have been endeavouring to render my cousin what service I could. But at the same time I am sorry to meet him here."
"As a friend and kinsman, Mr. Osbaldistone," said Frank, "you should have been sorry to meet me anywhere else but where my character is at stake, and where it is my intention to clear it."
However, it was evidently not Miss Vernon's purpose to quarrel with Rashleigh at that time. She led him apart, and began talking to him--at first quietly, then with obvious anger. From her manner she was charging him with knowing who had really committed the robbery, and pressing upon him in some way to make plain his cousin's innocence. He resisted long, but at length gave way.