'
'No friend! What meanest thou, Dorothy?' said lord Herbert, taking
her two clasped hands between his. 'There is my Margaret and my
father!'
'Alas, my lord! they mean well by me, but they do not believe me;
and if your lordship believe me no more than they, I must go from
Raglan. Yet believing me, I know not how you could any more help
me.'
'Dorothy, my child, I can do nothing till thou take me with thee. I
cannot even comfort thee.'
'Your lordship is weary,' said Dorothy, rising and wiping her eyes.
'You cannot yet have eaten since you came. Go, my lord, and hear my
tale first from them that believe me not. They will assure you of
nothing that is not true, only they understand it not, and wrong me
in their conjectures. Let my lady Margaret tell it you, my lord, and
then if you have yet faith enough in me to send for me, I will come
and answer all you ask. If you send not for me, I will ride from
Raglan to-morrow.'
'It shall be as thou sayest, Dorothy. An' it be not fit for the
judge to hear both sides of the tale, or an' it boots the innocent
which side he first heareth, then were he no better judge than good
king James, of blessed memory, when he was so sore astonished to
find both sides in the right.
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