s: but--"

"But--yet was it not rightly for us, thee and me, but for some folks a
long way off, we cannot well say whom?"

Amphillis span and thought--span fast, because she was thinking hard:
and Marabel did not interrupt her thoughts.

"But--we must merit it!" she urged again at last.

"Dost thou commonly merit the gifts given thee? When man meriteth that
he receiveth--when he doth somewhat, to obtain it--it is a wage, not a
gift. The very life and soul of a gift is that it is not merited, but
given of free favour, of friendship or love."

"I never heard no such doctrine!"

Marabel only smiled.

"Followeth my Lady this manner?"

"A little in the head, maybe; for the heart will I not speak."

"And my La--I would say, Mistress Perrote?" Amphillis suddenly
recollected that her mistress was never to be mentioned.

"Ask at her," said Marabel, with a smile.

"Then Master Norman is of this fashion of thinking?"

"Ay. So be the Hyltons all."

"Whence gat you the same?"

"It was learned me of my Lady Molyneux of Sefton, that I served as
chamberer ere I came hither. I marvel somewhat, Amphillis, that thou
hast never heard the same, and a Neville. All the Nevilles of Raby be
of our learning--well-nigh."

"Dear heart, but I'm no Neville of Raby!" cried Amphillis, with a laugh
at the extravagance of the idea. "At the least, I know not well whence
my father came; his name was Walter Neville, and his father was Ralph,
and more knew I never. He bare arms, 'tis true--gules, a saltire
argent; and his device, `_Ne vile velis_.'"

"The self arms of the Nevilles of Raby," said Marabel, with an amused
smile. "I marvel, Amphillis, thou art not better learned in thine own
family matters."

"Soothly. I never had none to learn me, saving my mother; and though
she would tell me oft of my father himself, how good and true man he
were, yet she never seemed to list to speak much of his house. Maybe it
was by reason he came below his rank in wedding her, and his kin refused
to acknowledge her amongst them. Thus, see you, I dropped down, as man
should say, into my mother's rank, and never had no chance to learn
nought of my father's matters."

"Did thine uncle learn thee nought, then?"

"He learned me how to make patties of divers fashions," answered
Amphillis, laughing. "He was very good to me, and belike to my mother,
his sister; but I went not to dwell with him until after she was
departed to God. And then I