"There, sit down and refresh yourself," said Lady Shrewsbury, "and listen to me while you eat and drink. You need not stay in the room, Jonah."
The servant to whom she spoke withdrew, closing the door behind him, and the Countess then remained in thought for a moment, after which she exclaimed, "All we shall want is a parson; the banns have been duly published; I will bring up a certificate to that effect, and meet you at Greenwich to-morrow, or the next day. You must find some good serviceable priest, who will not scruple to join your hand and Arabella's in her own chamber or mine. Sir Harry West shall give her away; and you must provide yourself with another witness whom you can trust; for the dear girl's fair name must not suffer."
"Oh, Rodney, Rodney is the man," replied Seymour; "he is full of all excesses of love and honour; and there is no chance of his betraying our secret, if it be not in a sonnet addressed to my fair grandmother."
The Countess laughed, and her young friend proceeded: "He, too, I doubt not, can find me a clergyman, who will do all that is needful. Will you, dear lady, prepare Arabella? for it may so happen, that I have no opportunity of speaking to her alone."
"All that shall be done," answered the Countess; "and I, too, will take care to fix upon some day when the Court shall have business on its hands; so that our proceedings be unwatched. However, you must both get out of the country as fast as possible. Are you prepared with means?'
"All is done," answered Seymour. "Lord Hertford gave me a thousand pounds to pay our first expenses; the ship is in the mouth of the river, only waiting for us to sail. Now, lady, I am ready," he continued, rising.
"Nay, take another cup of wine," said the Countess; "have the priest, with a friend, prepared at Greenwich, and leave all the rest to me."
Seymour promised, with right good will, to fail in nothing that depended on him; and then, taking his leave of Lady Shrewsbury, he bade farewell to the Earl and Sir Harry West, mounted on his horse, and, followed by one servant, rode away across the country. So far the scheme proved successful: he reached Hertford in time to despatch a note to Lord Salisbury that night; and no one in the Court suspected that he had been in Buckinghamshire for many a month. Even Arabella herself heard on the following morning that he had been seen during the preceding evening, at a great distance from the spot where she had fancied he must be, and concluded that he must have obtained intelligence of Overbury's visit to Malvoisie.