chen, when Belasez presented herself with an apology for being late.

"Nay, folks that go to bed at nine may well not rise till five," said
Licorice, graciously. "Throw more salt in here, child, and fetch the
porringers whilst I stir it. Call thy father and Delecresse,--breakfast
will be ready by the time they are."

Breakfast was half over when Licorice inquired of her daughter whom she
had seen at Bury Castle.

"Oh! to speak to, only the Countess and her daughter, Damsel Margaret,
and the other young damsels, Doucebelle, Eva, and Marie; and Levina, the
Lady's dresser. They showed me some others through the window, so that
I knew their names and faces."

Belasez quietly left out the priests.

"And what knights didst thou see there?"

"Through the window? Sir Hubert the Earl, and Sir Richard of
Gloucester, and Sir John the Earl's son, and Sir John de Averenches.
Oh! I forgot Dame Hawise, Sir John's wife; but I never saw much of
her."

"There was no such there as one named Bruno de Malpas, I suppose?" asked
Licorice, with assumed carelessness. "No, there was no knight of that
name." But in her heart Belasez felt that the name belonged to the
priest, Father Bruno.

A few more questions were asked her, of no import, and then they rose.
When Licorice set her free from household duties, Belasez took her way
to the little closet over the porch which served as her father's
library. He was the happy possessor of eleven volumes,--a goodly number
at that date. Eight she passed by, knowing them to contain no pictures.
The ninth was an illuminated copy of the Brut, which of course began,
as all chronicles then did, with the creation; but Belasez looked
through it twice without finding any thing to satisfy her. Next came
the Chronicle of Benoit, but the illuminations in this were merely
initials and tail-pieces in arabesque. There was only one left, and it
was the largest volume in the collection. Belasez could not remember
having ever opened it. She pulled it down now, just missing a sprained
wrist in the process, and found it to be a splendid copy of the
Hagiographa, with full-page pictures, glowing with colours and gold. Of
course, the illuminations had been executed by Christian hands; but all
these books had come to Abraham in exchange for bad debts, and he was
not so consistent as to refuse to look at the representations of created
things, however wicked he might account it to produce them. Belasez
tur