not wanting in sense, said the former (to whom the sensible side of him
had been shown); and, he was right well-favoured, and so courtly! said
Lady Enville--who had seen the courtly aspect.

"Well-favoured!" laughed Sir Thomas. "Calleth a woman yonder lad
well-favoured? Why, his face is the worst part of him: 'tis all satin
and simpers!"

Rachel had not the heart to speak ill of the invalid whom she had
nursed, while she admitted frankly that there were points about him
which she did not like: but these, no doubt, arose mainly from his being
a foreigner and a Papist. Margaret said little, but in her heart she
despised him. And presently Jack came home, when the volunteers were
disbanded, and, after a passage of arms, became the sworn brother of the
young prisoner. He was such a gentleman! said Master Jack. So there
was not much likelihood of Blanche's speedy disenchantment.

"Marry, what think you of the lad, Mistress Thekla?" demanded Barbara
one day, when she was at "four-hours" at the parsonage.

"He is very young," answered Mrs Tremayne, who always excused everybody
as long as it was possible. "He will amend with time, we may well
hope."

"Which is to say, I admire him not," suggested Mrs Rose, now a very old
woman, on whom time had brought few bodily infirmities, and no, mental
ones.

"Who doth admire him, Barbara, at the Court?" asked Mr Tremayne.

"Marry La'kin! every soul, as methinks, save Mistress Meg, and Sim, and
Jennet. Mistress Meg--I misdoubt if she doth; and Sim says he is a
nincompoop; [silly fellow] and Jennet saith, he is as like as two peas
to the old fox that they nailed up on the barn door when she was a
little maid. But Sir Thomas, and my Lady, and Master Jack, be mighty
taken with him; and Mistress Rachel but little less: and as to Mistress
Blanche, she hath eyes for nought else."

"Poor Blanche!" said Thekla.

"Blanche shall be a mouse in a trap, if she have not a care," said Mrs
Rose, with a wise shake of her head.

"Good lack, Mistress! she is in the trap already, but she wot it not."

"When we wot us to be in a trap, we be near the outcoming," remarked the
Rector.

"Of a truth I cannot tell," thoughtfully resumed Barbara, "whether this
young gentleman be rare deep, or rare shallow. He is well-nigh as ill
to fathom as Mistress Lucrece herself. Lo' you, o' Sunday morrow, Sir
Thomas told him that the law of the land was for every man and woman in
the Queen's dominions t