very pleasure of feeling that she has the power, but she will come
round at last, and 'tis his will that is done in the long run. If
this lady could beguile him indeed, she might be a free woman in the
end."

"And think you that she did?"

"Not she! The Lord Treasurer is too long-headed, and has too strong
a hate to all Papistry, to be beguiled more than for the very moment
he was before her. He cannot help the being a man, you see, and they
are all alike when once in her presence--your lord and father, like
the rest of them, sister Grace. Mark me if there be not tempests
brewing, an we be not the sooner rid of this guest of ours. My
mother is not the woman to bear it long."

Dame Mary's tongue was apt to run on too fast, and Lady Talbot
interrupted its career with an amused gesture towards the children.

For the little Cis, babe as she was, had all the three boys at her
service. Humfrey, with a paternal air, was holding her on the
window-seat; Antony Babington was standing to receive the ball that
was being tossed to and fro between them, but as she never caught it,
Will Cavendish was content to pick it up every time and return it to
her, appearing amply rewarded by her laugh of delight.

The two mothers could not but laugh, and Mrs. Babington said the
brave lads were learning their knightly courtesy early, while Mary
Talbot began observing on the want of likeness between Cis and either
the Talbot or Hardwicke race. The little girl was much darker in
colouring than any of the boys, and had a pair of black, dark, heavy