e Queen was
listened to with delight as an extreme favour, which set her tongue off
with all the eager pleasure of a girl, telling what she alone can tell.

All through the banquet they talked, for Babington had much to ask of
all the members of the household whom he had known. And after the
feast was over and the hall was cleared for dancing, Antony was still,
by etiquette, her partner for the evening. The young bride and
bridegroom had first to perform a stately pavise before the whole
assembly in the centre of the floor, in which, poor young things, they
acquitted themselves much as if they were in the dancing-master's
hands. Then her father led out his mother, and vice verse. The
bridegroom had no grandparents, but the stately Earl handed forth his
little active wiry Countess, bowing over her with a grand stiff
devotion as genuine and earnest as at their wedding twenty years
previously, for the reconciliation had been complete, and had restored
all her ascendency over him. Theirs, as Mistress Susan exultingly
agreed with a Hardwicke kinsman not seen for many years, was the
grandest and most featly of all the performances. All the time each
pair were performing, the others were awaiting their turn, the ladies
in rows on benches or settles, the gentlemen sometimes standing before
them, sometimes sitting on cushions or steps at their feet, sometimes
handing them comfits of sugar or dried fruits.

The number of gentlemen was greatly in excess, so that Humfrey had no
such agreeable occupation, but had to stand in a herd among other young
men, watching with no gratified eye Antony Babington, in a graceful
attitude at Cicely's feet, while she conversed with him with untiring
animation.

Humfrey was not the only one to remark them. Lady Shrewsbury nodded
once or twice to herself as one who had discovered what she sought, and
the next morning a mandate arrived at Bridgefield that Master Richard
and his wife should come to speak with my Lady Countess.

Richard and his son were out of reach, having joined a party of the
guests who had gone out hunting. Susan had to go alone, for she wished
to keep Cicely as much as possible out of her Ladyship's sight, so she
left the girl in charge of her keys, so that if father brought home any
of the hunters to the midday meal, tankards and glasses might not be
lacking.

The Countess's summons was to her own bower, a sort of dressing-room,
within her great state bed-room, and w