"Not I; your good master's private cupboard does not interest me. Now I
want to know something more. Why is that beautiful cousin of yours not
married? Has she no suitors?"

"Suitors, Senor? Yes, plenty of them, but she sends them all about their
business, and seems to have no mind that way."

"Perhaps she is in love with her cousin, that long-legged, strong-armed,
wooden-headed Master Brome."

"Oh! no, Senor, I don't think so; no lady could be in love with him--he
is too stern and silent."

"I agree with you, Senora. Then perhaps he is in love with her."

Betty shook her head, and replied:

"Peter Brome doesn't think anything of women, Senor. At least he never
speaks to or of them."

"Which shows that probably he thinks about them all the more. Well,
well, it is no affair of ours, is it? Only I am glad to hear that there
is nothing between them, since your mistress ought to marry high, and be
a great lady, not a mere merchant's wife."

"Yes, Senor. Though Peter Brome is not a merchant, at least by birth, he
is high-born, and should be Sir Peter Brome if his father had not fought
on the wrong side and sold his land. He is a soldier, and a very brave
one, they say, as all might see last night."