Cicely's first impulse had been to pout and say she wanted none of
Mr. Babington's tokens, nor his company; but her mother's eye held
her back, and besides any sort of change of scene, or any new face,
could not but be delightful, so there was a certain leap of the young
heart when the invitation was accepted for her; and she let Sir Ralf
put the token into her hand, and a choice one it was. Everybody
pressed to look at it, while she stood blushing, coy and unwilling to
display the small egg-shaped watch of the kind recently invented at
Nuremberg. Sir Ralf observed that the young lady showed a comely
shamefast maidenliness, and therewith bowed himself out of the room.

Cicely laughed with impatient scorn. "Well spoken, reverend
seignior," she said, as she found herself alone with the Queen. "I
wish my Lady Countess would leave me alone. I am none of hers."

"Nay, mademoiselle, be not thus disdainful," said the Queen, in a gay
tone of banter; "give me here this poor token that thou dost so
despise, when many a maiden would be distraught with delight and
gratitude. Let me see it, I say."

And as Cicely, restraining with difficulty an impatient, uncourtly
gesture, placed the watch in her hand, her delicate deft fingers
opened the case, disregarding both the face and the place for
inserting the key; but dealing with a spring, which revealed that the
case was double, and that between the two thin plates of silver which
formed it, was inserted a tiny piece of the thinnest paper, written
from corner to corner with the smallest characters in cipher. Mary
laughed joyously and triumphantly as she held it up. "There,
mignonne! What sayest thou to thy token now? This is the first
secret news I have had from the outer world since we came to this