said, "if I must wed under my degree, I had rather it were Humfrey
than Antony Babington."

"I tell thee, simple child, thou shall wed neither. A woman does not
wed every man to whom she gives a smile and a nod. So long as thou
bear'st the name of this Talbot, he is a good watch-dog to hinder
Babington from winning thee: but if my Lady Countess choose to send
the swain here, favoured by her to pay his court to thee, why then,
she gives us the best chance we have had for many a long day of
holding intercourse with our friends without, and a hope of thee will
bind him the more closely."

"He is all yours, heart and soul, already, madam."

"I know it, child, but men are men, and no chains are so strong as
can be forged by a lady's lip and eye, if she do it cunningly. So
said my belle mere in France, and well do I believe it. Why, if one
of the sour-visaged reformers who haunt this place chanced to have a
daughter with sweetness enough to temper the acidity, the youth might
be throwing up his cap the next hour for Queen Bess and the
Reformation, unless we can tie him down with a silken cable while he
is in the mind."

"Yea, madam, you who are beautiful and winsome, you can do such
things, I am homely and awkward."

"Mort de ma vie, child! the beauty of the best of us is in the man's
eyes who looks at us. 'Tis true, thou hast more of the Border lassie
than the princess. The likeness of some ewe-milking, cheese-making
sonsie Hepburn hath descended to thee, and hath been fostered by