The child responded with "Poor poor," stroking the soft delicate
cheek, but the Countess interfered, still wrathful. "Master Richard,
I marvel that you should let her Grace be beset by a child, who, if
she cannot demean herself decorously, should have been left at home.
Susan Hardwicke, I thought I had schooled you better."

"Nay, madam, may not a babe's gentle deed of pity be pardoned?" said
Mary.

"Oh! if it pleasures you, madam, so be it," said Lady Shrewsbury,
deferentially; "but there be children here more worthy of your notice
than yonder little black-browed wench, who hath been allowed to
thrust herself forward, while others have been kept back from
importuning your Grace."

"No child can importune a mother who is cut off from her own," said
Mary, eager to make up for the jealousy she had excited. "Is this
bonnie laddie yours, madam? Ah! I should have known it by the
resemblance."

She held her white hand to receive the kisses of the boys: William
Cavendish, under his mother's eye, knelt obediently; Antony
Babington, a fair, pretty lad, of eight or nine, of a beautiful pink
and white complexion, pressed forward with an eager devotion which
made the Queen smile and press her delicate hand on his curled locks;
as for Humfrey, he retreated behind the shelter of his mother's
farthingale, where his presence was forgotten by every one else, and,
after the rebuff just administered to Cicely, there was no
inclination to bring him to light, or combat with his bashfulness.