ome
ulterior motive. He tried to set on Dr. Jones to persuade Messieurs
Gorion and Bourgoin, her medical attendants, that the cave would be
fatal to her rheumatism, but it so happened that the Peak Cavern was
Dr. Jones's favourite lion, the very pride of his heart. Pool's Hole
was dear to him, but the Peak Cave was far more precious, and the very
idea of the Queen of Scots honouring it with her presence, and leaving
behind her the flavour of her name, was so exhilarating to the little
man that if the place had been ten times more damp he would have
vouched for its salubrity. Moreover, he undertook that fumigations of
fragrant woods should remove all peril of noxious exhalations, so that
the Earl was obliged to give his orders that Mr. Eyre should be
requested to light up the cave, and heartily did he grumble and pour
forth his suspicions and annoyance to his cousin Richard.

"And I," said the good sailor, "felt it hard not to be able to tell him
that all was for the freak of a silly damsel."

Mistress Cicely laughed a little triumphantly. It was something like
being a Queen's daughter to have been the cause of making my Lord
himself bestir himself against his will. She had her own way, and
might well be good-humoured. "Come, dear sir father," she said, coming
up to him in a coaxing, patronising way, which once would have been
quite alien to them both, "be not angered. You know nobody means
treason! And, after all, 'tis not I but you that are the cause of all
the turmoil. If you would but have ridden soberly out with your poor
little Cis, there would have been no coil, but my Lord might have paced
stately and slow up and down the terrace-walk undisturbed."

"Ah, child, child!" said Susan, vexed, though her husband could not
help smiling at the arch drollery of the girl's tone and manner, "do
not thou learn light mockery of all that should be honoured."

"I am not bound to honour the Earl," said Cis, proudly.

"Hush, hush!" said Richard. "I have allowed thee unchecked too long,
maiden. Wert thou ten times what thou art, it would not give thee the
right to mock at the gray-haired, highly-trusted noble, the head of the
name thou dost bear."

"And the torment of her whom I am most bound to love," broke from
Cicely petulantly.

Richard's response to this sally was to rise up, make the young lady
the lowest possible reverence, with extreme and displeased gravity, and
then to quit the room. It brought the gir