ain, including the little
Lady Arbell, once more to fill the Castle and the Manor-house, and to
renew the free hospitable life of a great feudal chief, or of the
Queen's old courtier, with doors wide open, and no ward or suspicion.

Richard rejoiced that his sons, before going abroad, should witness the
return to the old times which had been at an end before they could
remember Sheffield distinctly. The whole family were drawn up as usual
to receive them, when the Earl and Countess arrived first of all at the
Manor-house.

The Countess looked smaller, thinner, older, perhaps a trifle more
shrewish, but she had evidently suffered much, and was very glad to
have recovered her husband and her home.

"So, Susan Talbot," was her salutation, "you have thriven, it seems.
You have been playing the part of hostess, I hear."

"Only so far as might serve his Lordship, madam."

"And the wench, there, what call you her? Ay, Cicely. I hear the
Scottish Queen hath been cockering her up and making her her bedfellow,
till she hath spoilt her for a reasonable maiden. Is it so? She looks
it."

"I trust not, madam," said Susan.

"She grows a strapping wench, and we must find her a good husband to
curb her pride. I have a young man already in my eye for her."

"So please your Ladyship, we do not think of marrying her as yet,"
returned Susan, in consternation.

"Tilly vally, Susan Talbot, tell me not such folly as that. Why, the
maid is over seventeen at the very least! Save for all the coil this
Scottish woman and her crew have made, I should have seen her well
mated a year ago."

Here was a satisfactory prospect for Mistress Susan, bred as she had
been to unquestioning submission to the Countess. There was no more to
be said on that occasion, as the great lady passed on to bestow her
notice on others of her little court.

Humfrey meantime had been warmly greeted by the younger men of the
suite, and one of them handed him a letter which filled him with
eagerness. It was from an old shipmate, who wrote, not without
sanction, to inform him that Sir Francis Drake was fitting out an
expedition, with the full consent of the Queen, to make a descent upon
the Spaniards, and that there was no doubt that if he presented himself
at Plymouth, he would obtain either the command, or at any rate the
lieutenancy, of one of the numerous ships which were to be
commissioned. Humfrey was before all else a sailor. He had made no
enga