certain tall books, a chest full of them, that a foreign pedlar had brought
him; whereupon the Duchess, who could never abide a book, breaks out at
him with a laugh and a flash of her old spirit--'Holy Mother of God, must
I have more books about me? I was nearly smothered with them in the first
year of my marriage;' and the chaplain turning red at the affront, she
added: 'You may buy them and welcome, my good chaplain, if you can find
the money; but as for me, I am yet seeking a way to pay for my turquoise
necklace, and the statue of Daphne at the end of the bowling-green, and
the Indian parrot that my black boy brought me last Michaelmas from the
Bohemians--so you see I've no money to waste on trifles;' and as he backs
out awkwardly she tosses at him over her shoulder: 'You should pray to
Saint Blandina to open the Duke's pocket!' to which he returned, very
quietly, 'Your excellency's suggestion is an admirable one, and I have
already entreated that blessed martyr to open the Duke's understanding.'

"Thereat, Nencia said (who was standing by), the Duchess flushed
wonderfully red and waved him out of the room; and then 'Quick!' she cried
to my grandmother (who was too glad to run on such errands), 'Call me
Antonio, the gardener's boy, to the box-garden; I've a word to say to him
about the new clove-carnations....'

"Now I may not have told you, sir, that in the crypt under the chapel there
has stood, for more generations than a man can count, a stone coffin
containing a thighbone of the blessed Saint Blandina of Lyons, a relic
offered, I've been told, by some great Duke of France to one of our own
dukes when they fought the Turk together; and the object, ever since, of
particular veneration in this illustrious family. Now, since the Duchess
had been left to herself, it was observed she affected a fervent devotion
to this relic, praying often in the chapel and even causing the stone slab
that covered the entrance to the crypt to be replaced by a wooden one,