nurse! thou shalt not chide my new-found bairn. She will
learn to ken us better in time if they will leave her with us," said
Mary. "There, there; greet not so sair, mine ain. I ask thee not to
share my sorrows and my woes. That Heaven forefend. I ask thee but to
come from time to time and cheer my nights, and lie on my weary bosom
to still its ache and yearning, and let me feel that I have indeed a
child."

"Oh, mother, mother!" Cis cried again in a stifled voice, as one who
could not utter her feelings, but not in the cold dry tone that had
called forth Mrs. Kennedy's wrath. "Pardon me, I know not--I cannot
say what I would. But oh! I would do anything for--for your Grace."

"All that I would ask of thee is to hold thy peace and keep our
counsel. Be Cicely Talbot by day as ever. Only at night be mine--my
child, my Bride, for so wast thou named after our Scottish patroness.
It was a relic of her sandals that was hung about thy neck, and her
ship in which thou didst sail; and lo, she heard and guarded thee, and
not merely saved thee from death, but provided thee a happy joyous home
and well-nurtured childhood. We must render her our thanks, my child.
Beata Brigitta, ora pro nobis."

"It was the good God Almighty who saved me, madam," said Cis bluntly.

"Alack! I forgot that yonder good lady could not fail to rear thee in
the outer darkness of her heresy; but thou wilt come back to us, my ain
wee thing! Heaven forbid that I should deny Whose Hand it was that
saved thee, but it was at the blessed Bride's intercession. No doubt
she reserved for me, who had turned to her in my distress, this
precious consolation! But I will not vex thy little heart with debate
this first night. To be mother and child is enough for us. What art
thou pondering?"

"Only, madam, who was it that told your Grace that I was a stranger?"

"The marks, bairnie, the marks," said Mary. "They told their own tale
to good Nurse Jeanie; ay, and to Gorion, whom we blamed for his cruelty
in branding my poor little lammie."

"Ah! but," said Cicely, "did not yonder woman with the beads and
bracelets bid him look?"

If it had been lighter, Cicely would have seen that the Queen was not
pleased at the inquiry, but she only heard the answer from Jean's bed,
"Hout no, I wad she knew nought of thae brands. How should she?"

"Nay," said Cicely, "she--no, it was Tibbott the huckster-woman told me
long ago that I was not what I seemed, and th