often use when speaking to others who are less happy than themselves.
'You will keep her, Humphrey, she shall have milk warm from one of my best
cows, and feed on the fat of the land. Oh! we will soon see the Dame Mary
Ratcliffe fit to go to Court and shine there.'

Humphrey shook his head.

'That is the last thing Mary would desire.' Then changing his tone, he went
on: 'What think you of Ambrose, George?'

'He is big enow, and handsome. Is he amenable and easy to control?'

'I have no cause to find fault with him; he lacks spirit somewhat, and has
taken a craze to be a scholar rather than a soldier. He has been studying
at Goettingen, and now desires to enter Cambridge. The old ambition to be a
soldier and brave knight, like Sir Philip Sidney, died out during those
four years spent in the Jesuit school, and he is accounted marvellously
clever at Latin and Greek.'

'Humph,' George said. 'Let us hope there is no lurking Jesuitry in him. The
worse for him if there is, for the Queen is employing every means to run
the poor wretches to earth. The prisons are chock full of them, and the
mass held in abhorrence.'

'Ambrose was but a child when with the Jesuits--scarce twelve years old
when I came upon him, and recovered him for his mother. No, no, I do not
fear Papacy for him, though, I confess, I would rather see him a rollicking
young soldier than the quiet, reserved fellow he is. One thing is certain,
he has a devotion for his mother, and for that I bless the boy. He
considers her first in everything, and she can enter into his learning with
a zest and interest which I cannot.'

'Learning is not everything,' George said, 'let me hope so, at any rate, as
I am no scholar.'

'No; but it is a great deal when added to godliness,' Humphrey replied. 'We
saw that in the wonderful life of Sir Philip Sidney. It was hard to say in
what he excelled most, learning or statesmanship or soldiering. Ay, there
will never be one to match him in our time, nor in any future time, so I
am ready to think. There's scarce a day passes but he comes before me,
George, and scarce a day but I marvel why that brilliant sun went down
while it was high noonday. Thirty-one years and all was told.'

'Yes,' George said; 'but though he is dead he is not forgotten, and that's
more than can be said of thousands who have died since he died--four years
ago; by Queen and humble folk he is remembered.'

George Ratcliffe's prophecy seemed likely to be ful