"

"But, Mother ..."

"Then go at once and get it, ere that fool Sir Timothy or the odious
Boatfield capture it under your very nose."

"But, Mother ..."

"Go! say something smart to her at once ... talk about your gray mare
... she is over fond of horses ..."

Then as the young Squire, awkward and clumsy in his manner, more
accustomed to the company of his own servants than to that of highborn
ladies, made sundry unfortunate attempts to enchain the attention of the
heiress, his worthy mother turned with meek benignity to Sir Marmaduke.

"A veritable infatuation, good Sir Marmaduke," she said with a sigh,
"quite against my interests, you know. I had no thought to see the dear
lad married so soon, nor to give up my home at the Dene yet, in favor of
a new mistress. Not but that Oliver is not a good son to his
mother--such a good lad!--and such a good husband he would be to any
girl who ..."

"A strange youth that secretary of yours, Sir Marmaduke," here
interposed Dame Harrison in her loud, dictatorial voice, breaking in on
Mistress Pyncheon's dithyrambs, "modest he appears to be, and silent
too: a paragon meseems!"

She spoke with obvious sarcasm, casting covert glances at Lady Sue to
see if she heard.

Sir Marmaduke shrugged his shoulders.

"Lambert is very industrious," he said curtly.

"I thought secretaries never did anything but suck the ends of their
pens," suggested Mistress Pyncheon mildly.

"Sometimes they make love to their employer's daughter," retorted Dame
Harrison spitefully, for Lady Sue was undoubtedly lending an ear to the
conversation now that it had the young secretary for object. She was not
watching Squire Boatfield who was wielding the balls just then with
remarkable prowess, and at this last remark from the portly old dame,
she turned sharply round and said with a strange little air of
haughtiness which somehow became her very well:

"But then you see, mistress, Master Lambert's employer doth not possess
a daughter of his own--only a ward ... mayhap that is the reason why his
secretary performs his duties so well in other ways."

Her cheeks were glowing as she said this, and she looked quite defiant,
as if challenging these disagreeable mothers and aunts of
fortune-hunting youths to cast unpleasant aspersions on a friend whom
she had taken under her special protection.

Sir Marmaduke looked at her keenly; a deep frown settled between his
eyes at sight of her enthusiasm. His face