ood still holding out one hand, with a finger of
the other on her lips as a sign of silence to the rest of the suite and
to Emmott, who stood flushed and angered; for what she esteemed her
lawful province seemed to have been invaded from the other side of the
country.

They were on the side of the descent from the moorlands connected with
the Peak, on a small esplanade in the midst of which lay a deep clear
pool, with nine small springs or fountains discharging themselves,
under fern and wild rose or honeysuckle, into its basin. Steps bad been
cut in the rock leading to the verge of the pool, and on the lowest of
these, with his back to the new-comers, was kneeling a young man, his
brown head bare, his short cloak laid aside, so that his well-knit form
could be seen; the sword and spurs that clanked against the rock, as
well as the whole fashion and texture of his riding-dress, showing him
to be a gentleman.

"We shall see the venture made," whispered Mary to her daughter, who,
in virtue of youth and lightness of foot, had kept close behind her.
Grasping the girl's arm and smiling, she heard the young man's voice
cry aloud to the echoes of the rock, "Cis!" then stoop forward and
plunge face and head into the clear translucent water.

"Good luck to a true lover!" smiled the Queen. "What! starting, silly
maid? Cisses are plenty in these parts as rowan berries."

"Nay, but--" gasped Cicely, for at that moment the young man, rising
from his knees, his face still shining with the water, looked up at his
unsuspected spectators. An expression of astonishment and ecstasy
lighted up his honest sunburnt countenance as Master Richard, who had
just succeeded in dragging the portly Earl up the steep path, met his
gaze. He threw up his arms, made apparently but one bound, and was
kneeling at the captain's feet, embracing his knees.

"My son! Humfrey! Thyself!" cried Richard. "See! see what presence
we are in."

"Your blessing, father, first," cried Humfrey, "ere I can see aught
else."

And as Richard quickly and thankfully laid his hand on the brow, so
much fairer than the face, and then held his son for one moment in a
close embrace, with an exchange of the kiss that was not then only a
foreign fashion. Queen and Earl said to one another with a sigh, that
happy was the household where the son had no eyes for any save his
father.

Mary, however, must have found it hard to continue her smiles when,
after due but hur