'It does not matter,' said Humfrey, 'you are just the same to us, is she not, mother?'
'She is our dear Heaven-sent child,' said the mother tenderly.
'But thou art not my true mother, nor Humfrey nor Diccon my brethren,' she said, stretching out her hands like one in the dark.
'If I'm not your brother, Cis, I'll be your husband, and then you will have a real right to be called Talbot. That's better than if you were my sister, for then you would go away, I don't know where, and now you will always be mine-mine-mine very own.'
And as he gave Cis a hug in assurance of his intentions, his father, who was uneasy about the matter, looked in again, and as Susan, with tears in her eyes, pointed to the children, the good man said, 'By my faith, the boy has found the way to cut the knot-or rather to tie it. What say you, dame? If we do not get a portion for him, we do not have to give one with her, so it is as broad as it is long, and she remains our dear child. Only listen, children, you are both old enough to keep a secret. Not one word of all this matter is to be breathed to any soul till I bid you.'
'Not to Diccon,' said Humfrey decidedly.
'Nor to Antony?' asked Cis wistfully.
'To Antony? No, indeed! What has he to do with it? Now, to your beds, children, and forget all about this tale.'
'There, Humfrey,' broke out Cis, as soon as they were alone together, 'Huckstress Tibbott
'How?' said Humfrey.
'Mindst thou not the day when I crossed her hand with the tester father gave me?'
'When mother whipped thee for listening to fortune-tellers and wasting thy substance. Ay, I mind it well,' said Humfrey, 'and how thou didst stand simpering at her pack of lies, ere mother made thee sing another tune.'
'Nay, Humfrey, they were no lies, though I thought them so then. She said I was not what I seemed, and that the Talbots' kennel would not always hold one of the noble northern eagles. So Humfrey, sweet Humfrey, thou must not make too sure of wedding me.'
'I'll wed thee though all the lying old gipsy-wives in England wore their false throats out in screeching out that I shall not,' cried Humfrey.
'But she must have known,' said Cis, in an awestruck voice; 'the spirits must have spoken with her, and said that I am none of the Talbots.'
'Hath mother heard this?' asked Humfrey, recoiling a little, but never thinking of the more plausible explanation.
'Oh no, no! tell her not, Humfrey, tell her not. She said she would whip me again if ever I talked again of the follies that the fortune- telling woman had gulled me with, for if they were not deceits, they were worse. And, thou seest, they are worse, Humfrey!'
With which awe-stricken conclusion the children went off to bed.
CHAPTER VI. THE BEWITCHED WHISTLE.
A child's point of view is so different from that of a grown person, that the discovery did not make half so much difference to Cis as her adopted parents expected. In fact it was like a dream to her. She found her daily life and her surroundings the same, and her chief interest was-at least apparently-how soon she could escape from psalter and seam, to play with little Ned, and look out for the elder boys returning, or watch for the Scottish Queen taking her daily ride. Once, prompted by Antony, Cis had made a beautiful nosegay of lilies and held it up to the Queen when she rode in at the gate on her return from Buxton. She had been rewarded by the sweetest of smiles, but Captain Talbot had said it must never happen again, or he should be accused of letting billets pass in posies. The whole place was pervaded, in fact, by an atmosphere of suspicion, and the vigilance, which might have been endurable for a few months, was wearing the spirits and temper of all concerned, now that it had already lasted for seven or eight years, and there seemed no end to it. Moreover, in spite of all care, it every now and then became apparent that Queen Mary had some communication with the outer world which no one could trace, though the effects endangered the life of Queen Elizabeth, the peace of the kingdom, and the existence of the English Church. The blame always fell upon Lord Shrewsbury; and who could wonder that he was becoming captiously suspicious, and soured in temper, so that even such faithful kinsmen as Richard Talbot could sometimes hardly bear with him, and became punctiliously anxious that there should not be the smallest loophole for censure of the conduct of himself and his family?
The person on whom Master Goatley's visit had left the most impression seemed to be Humfrey. On the one hand, his father's words had made him enter into his situation of trust and loyalty, and perceive something of the constant sacrifice of self to duty that it required, and, on the other hand, he had assumed a position towards Cis of which he in some degree felt the force. There was nothing in the opinions of the time to render their semi-betrothal ridiculous. At the Manor house itself, Gilbert Talbot and Mary Cavendish had been married when no older than he was; half their contemporaries were already plighted, and the only difference was that in the present harassing state of surveillance in which every one lived, the parents thought that to avow the secret so long kept might bring about inquiry and suspicion, and they therefore wished it to be guarded till the marriage could be contracted. As Cis developed, she had looks and tones which so curiously harmonised, now with the Scotch, now with the French element in the royal captive's suite, and which made Captain Richard believe that she must belong to some of the families who seemed amphibious between the two courts; and her identification as a Seaton, a Flemyng, a Beatoun, or as a member of any of the families attached to the losing cause, would only involve her in exile and disgrace. Besides, there was every reason to think her an orphan, and a distant kinsman was scarcely likely to give her such a home as she had at Bridgefield, where she had always been looked on as a daughter, and was now regarded as doubly their own in right of their son. So Humfrey was permitted to consider her as peculiarly his own, and he exerted this right of property by a certain jealousy of Antony Babington which amused his parents, and teased the young lady. Nor was he wholly actuated by the jealousy of proprietorship, for he knew the devotion with which Antony regarded Queen Mary, and did not wholly trust him. His sense of honour and duty to his father's trust was one thing, Antony's knight-errantry to the beautiful captive was another; each boy thought himself strictly honourable, while they moved in parallel lines and could not understand one another; yet, with the reserve of childhood, all that passed between them was a secret, till one afternoon when loud angry sounds and suppressed sobs attracted Mistress Susan to the garden, where she found Cis crying bitterly, and little Diccon staring eagerly, while a pitched battle was going on between her eldest son and young Antony Babington, who were pommelling each other too furiously to perceive her approach.
'Boys! boys! fie for shame,' she cried, with a hand on the shoulder of each, and they stood apart at her touch, though still fiercely looking at one another.
'See what spectacles you have made of yourselves!' she continued. 'Is this your treatment of your guest, Humfrey? How is my Lord's page to show himself at Chatsworth to-morrow with such an eye? What is it all about?'
Both combatants eyed each other in sullen silence.
'Tell me, Cis. Tell me, Diccon. I will know, or you shall have the rod as well as Humfrey.'
Diccon, who was still in the era of timidity, instead of secretiveness, spoke out. 'He,' indicating his brother, 'wanted the packet.'
'What packet?' exclaimed the mother, alarmed.
'The packet that
'It was the dog-whistle,' said Cis. 'It hath no sound in it, and Antony would have me change it for him, because Huckster Tibbott may not come within the gates. I did not want to do so; I fear Tibbott, and when Humfrey found me crying he fell on Antony. So blame him not, mother.'
'If Humfrey is a jealous churl, and Cis a little fool, there's no help for it,' said Antony, disdainfully turning his back on his late adversary.
'Then let me take charge of this whistle,' returned the lady, moved by the universal habit of caution, but Antony sprang hastily to intercept her as she was taking from the little girl a small paper packet tied round with coloured yarn, but he was not in time, and could only exclaim, 'Nay, nay, madam, I will not trouble you. It is
