youngsters around, for Richard and most of the elders
were escorting the Queen out of the park, and Mistress Susan had been
summoned on some question of household stuff. Cis, however, stood
leaning against the balustrade, over which she had leant for the last
glance exchanged with her mother, her face hidden in her hands and
kerchief, weeping bitterly, feeling as if all the glory and excitement
of the last few weeks had vanished as a dream and left her to the
dreary dulness of common life, as little insignificant Cis Talbot again.

It was Humfrey who first came near, almost timidly touched her hand,
and said, "Cheer up. It is but for a little while, mayhap. She will
send for thee. Come, here is thine old palfrey--poor old Dapple. Let
me put thee on him, and for this brief time let us feign that all is as
it was, and thou art my little sister once more."

"I know not which is truth and which is dreaming," said Cis, waking up
through her tears, but resigning her hand to him, and letting him lift
her to her seat on the old pony which had been the playfellow of both.
If it had been an effort to Humfrey to prolong the word Cis into
sister, he was rewarded for it. It gave the key-note to their
intercourse, and set her at ease with him; and the idea that her
present rustication was but a comedy instead of a reality was consoling
in her present frame of mind. Mistress Susan, surrounded with
importunate inquirers as to household matters, and unable to escape
from them, could only see that Humfrey had taken charge of the maiden,
and trusted to his honour and his tact. This was, however, only the
beginning of a weary and perplexing time. Nothing could restore Cis to
her old place in the Bridgefield household, or make her look upon its
tasks, cares, and joys as she had done only a few short months ago.
Her share in them could only be acting, and she was too artless and
simple to play a part. Most frequently she was listless, dull, and
pining, so much inclined to despise and neglect the ordinary household
occupations which befitted the daughter of the family, that her adopted
mother was forced, for the sake of her incognito, to rouse, and often
to scold her when any witnesses were present who would have thought
Mrs. Talbot's toleration of such conduct in a daughter suspicious and
unnatural.

Such reproofs were dangerous in another way, for Humfrey could not bear
to hear them, and was driven nearly to the verge of disrespe