"Nay, Sir Minister, what doth a sailor put his trust in but his God
foremost, and then his good ship and his brave men?"

It should be observed that all the three men wore their hats, and
each made a reverent gesture of touching them. The clergyman seemed
satisfied by the answer, and presently added that it would be well,
if Master and Mistress Talbot meant to adopt the child, that she
should be baptized.

"How now?" said Richard, "we are not so near any coast of Turks or
Infidels that we should deem her sprung of heathen folk."

"Assuredly not," said Cuthbert Langston, whose quick, light-coloured
eyes had spied the reliquary in Mistress Susan's work-basket, "if
this belongs to her. By your leave, kinswoman," and he lifted it in
his hand with evident veneration, and began examining it.

"It is Babylonish gold, an accursed thing!" exclaimed Master
Heatherthwayte. "Beware, Master Talbot, and cast it from thee."

"Nay," said Richard," that shall I not do. It may lead to the
discovery of the child's kindred. Why, my master, what harm think
you it will do to us in my dame's casket? Or what right have we to
make away with the little one's property?"

His common sense was equally far removed from the horror of the one
visitor as from the reverence of the other, and so it pleased
neither. Master Langston was the first to speak, observing that the
relic made it evident that the child must have been baptized.