Page:Tudor Jenks--The defense of the castle.djvu/244

216 going to put his wife's cousin, an orphan boy, to work with a miller. Several of these spoke kindly of the "boy," saying he looked "white, and as if he needed tanning in the sun," but none showed much curiosity. In spite of her uneasiness, Amabel soon fell asleep because of the slow jogging over the uneven road, whereupon the kind farmer covered her softly with some empty sacks, and she did not wake until he drew up at an inn, late that afternoon, in the outskirts of the market-town. So she had safely made the first stages of her journey, but now must rely upon her own resources, since the farmer had not been able to find any acquaintance trustworthy enough to assist her on her way northward. But he, at Amabel's request, changed a piece of silver for her into money more likely to be owned by one in her condition. Then the farmer said: "Good-by, Harry, my lad. I can go no further with you. But I shall hear of you, and if you should need a home, remember that the string is always on the outside of the door for you."

With these words the farmer drove off, and Amabel, not daring to linger at the inn, set out briskly along the road. She had washed her face and hands before traveling with the farmer, but now, at the first roadside brook, she once more soiled both face and hands that she might pass as