daughter!"

Mr Monke rose, and endeavoured to kiss her Ladyship's hand; but she drew
it from him as if he had been a snake. He came over to where Isoult
sat, and held out his hand.

"Farewell, Mrs Avery," he said, in a low voice, which trembled a little.
"I have made an end of all mine hopes in this quarter. Yet how could I
have done other?"

"Forgive me, Mr Monke, I pray you," she said, glancing at Frances' face,
whence the light and the colour had not yet died away. "I think rather,
you have but now made a beginning."

Isoult Avery returned home in anything but a happy frame of mind. Lady
Lisle had turned completely against Mr Monke, and now taunted Frances
with "caring nought for him save for his Gospelling;" while Philippa
took part, first with one side, and then with the other. In all this
turmoil Isoult could see but one bright spot, which was the hope of an
approaching visit from Sir Henry and Lady Ashley. Lady Ashley (_nee_
Katherine Basset) was Lady Lisle's second daughter, and there was some
reason to expect, from the gentleness of her disposition, that her
influence would be exerted on the side of peace.

A letter was waiting for Isoult Avery at Bradmond, from an old friend
and mistress whom she had not seen since her marriage. It ran thus:--

"My Good Isoult,--But shall I call you _so_, now you be Mistress Avery?
Choose you if you will not have it so, for until you deny it I shall
call you so.

"Annis fareth right well, and is a maid of most sweet conditions. Now I
see your brow to wrinkle, and that you shall say, How cometh my Lady of
Suffolk to wit any thing of Annis? If all riddles were as readily
solute as this, it were scantly worth the trouble to make them. But
have here mine explication of the mystery. Three months gone, certain
of my kin writ unto me from Spain, to desire me to search and find a
discreet maiden of good degree, that should be apt at the tongues, and
that she should be reader of English unto the Queen's Grace of Spain,
the Emperor Charles his mother. Truly I slept not on the matter, but
endeavoured myself to serve them with all the haste in my power: but
though maids be many, discreet maids be few, and discreet maids of good
degree be fewer yet. Hereon writ I unto Mistress Anne Basset, the
discreetest maid I know, to ask at her if she were ware of an other as
discreet maid as herself, that would of her good will learn the Spanish
tongue, and dwell in Spain. And wh