ut for Clare be fit for her."

"But in case you judge it not so, what then?"

"Then I will have the child away."

"I could ne'er allow that, Mistress Basset," said Lady Enville with
unusual decision.

"I shall ne'er ask thee, Orige," returned Philippa, with a slightly
contemptuous stress upon the pronoun. "I will talk with thine husband;
I trust he will hear reason, though thou mayest not. And I could find
good places enow for Clare; I have many friends in the Court. My Lady
Dowager of Kent [Susan Bertie, the only daughter of Katherine Duchess of
Suffolk] would work, I know, for Isoult Barry's granddaughter; and so
would Beatrice Vivian [a fictitious person], Isoult's old comrade, that
hath a daughter and a niece to boot in the Queen's chamber. And I dare
say my Lady Scrope [Note 1] would do somewhat for me. Any way, I would
assay it."

"What, to have Clare in the Queen's Majesty's Court?" demanded Lady
Enville, her eyes sparkling with interest and pleasure. "O Mistress
Basset, could you not compass the same for Blanche?"

"In the Court! By my troth, nay!" said Philippa heartily. "I would
never set maid that I cared a pin for in Queen Bess's Court. Soothly,
there _be_ good women there, but--And as for Blanche,--I will see her,
Orige, ere I say aught. Blanche hath stole all thine heart, methinks--
so much as there was to steal."

"But what meant you touching Clare, Mistress Basset?"

"What meant I? Why, to have her with some worthy and well-conditioned
dame of good degree, that should see her well bestowed. I would trust
my Lady Dowager of Kent, forsooth, or my Lady Scrope--she is a good
woman and a pleasant--or maybe--"

"And my Lady Scrope is herself in the Court, I take it," said Lady
Enville, pursuing her own train of thought, independent of that of
Philippa.

"Ay, and were therefore the less fitting," said Philippa coolly. "Take
no thought thereabout, Orige; I will do nought till I have seen the
maidens."

"But, Mistress Basset! you would ne'er count that mine husband's word,
that is not in very deed her father, should weigh against mine, that am
her true and natural mother?" urged Lady Enville in an injured tone.

"Thou art her natural mother, Orige, 'tis sooth," was the uncompromising
answer: "but whether true or no, that will I not say. I rather think
nay than yea. And if thine husband be better father unto the child than
thou mother, he is the fitter to say what shall come of the ma