For here were these innocent folk--with Mr.Grove smiling upon them with the chocolate--talking of the play and what-not, and of which of the actors pleased them and which did not--and I noticed that the ladies, as always, were very severe upon the women--and the good fathers, too, pleased that they were pleased, and rallying them upon their gaiety--( for it appeared that these ladies did not go often into company); and here sat I, with my secret upon my heart, knowing--or guessing at least--that a plot was afoot to ruin them all and turn their merriment into mourning.
But I think that I acquitted myself pretty well; and that none guessed that anything was amiss with me; for I spoke of the plays I had seen in Rome, before that I was a novice, and of the singers that I heard there; and I listened, too, to their own speeches, gathering this and that, of what they did and where they went, if by chance I might gather something to their own advantage thereafter.
It was pretty to see, too, how courteous and gallant Mr.Ireland was with his mother and sister; and how he put their cloaks about them at the door, and feigned that he was a constable to carry them off to prison--( at which my heart failed me again)--for frequenting the company of suspected persons; and how he gave an arm to each of them, as they set off into the dark.
* * * * * That night too, as I lay abed, I thought much of all this again.

I had established a great friendliness with the Fathers by now, telling them I was come up again to London, as Mr.Whitbread had recommended me, until the Court should go again to Windsor, and that perhaps I should go with it thither.

They had told me at that, that one of their Fathers was there, named Mr.Bedingfeld (who was of the Oxburgh family, I think), and that he was confessor to the Duke of York, and that they would recommend me to him if I should go.

But all through my anxiety I comforted myself with the assurance the King had given to me, that, whatever else might ensue, not a hair of their heads should be touched, for I had great confidence in His Majesty's word, given so solemnly..