And being busy with the child, she answered him without lifting her
head, "Thou knowest that I am."
Then did he laugh a little, and saith, "How should I know, coz? Proof,
proof, I pray thee. Wilt thou not give me the kiss o' welcome after all
these years?"
Now he had not offered to kiss Mistress Marian. Therefore I waited right
curiously to see what my little lady would say unto his offer, and Jock
having dinned it into my ears ever since our wedding-day, that all women
were by nature eavesdroppers, I was of a mind to prove his theory for
him; so I not only listened with all my ears, but I looked with all my
eyes.
My lady waxed first ruddy, then like to milk, then ruddy again, and she
reached out her hand to him across the hound. "In truth I will, cousin,"
quoth she.
He did take the little hand in his, putting down his other hand softly
over it, as when one holds a frighted bird, and he looked at her as
though he would pierce her lids with his gaze, for her eyes were down,
and he saith, "Sweetheart, right gladly will I give this pretty hand
the kiss o' an eternal welcome; but methinks thou hast begged the
question. I pleaded to receive a kiss rather than to bestow one."
And her face was like a bended rose. Then did he step round quickly
beside her, and once more was the poor babe left in dire terror o' his
life, and he made up a piteous face, but the dog standing still, he fell
to rattling its collar, and soon waxed merry with the jingle o' th'
silver. So I looked again at my lady and Lord Radnor.
He had taken her about her waist with one arm, and with the other hand
he lifted gently upward her fair face, as doth a gardener a rain-beaten
flower, while his eyes looked down into hers. And slowly, slowly, almost
as rose-leaves unfurl i' th' sun, her white lids curled upward, and her
blue eyes peered softly from her yellow locks like corn-flowers through
ripe corn, there being a tear in each, as when a rain-bead doth tremble
i' th' real corn-flowers. And, to be the more like nature, there ran
big waves throughout her loosened tresses, like as when the wind doth
steal across a field o' grain on summer noons.
Then he bended down his tall head, and their lips met. God alone knows
what their first words would a been, for ere the kiss was well ended,
down falls the poor little rogue off of the hound's back, and lifts up
his voice loud enow to be heard across the sea by the red men i' the new
continent. And my lady runs and lifts him in her arms. Lord! such an ado
as they had a-comforting him! First my lady, then my lord, then my lady
again--and at last my lord tosses him to his shoulder, and saith he,
"Ho! thou little Jack Pudding! an thou art not still o' th' instant,
I'll swear thou art a girl, an' thou shalt ne'er have a sword such as
men have."
And as I live, the child stinted, and waxed as solemn as an owl! Not
another tear did he shed. My lord saith, "Now thou art a good lad,
therefore thou shalt have my sword to play with." And he unbinds it from
his side, scabbard and all, and holds it while the urchin gets astride
o't and pretends to ride. When my lord is tired o' stooping, he lifts
the child again to his shoulder, and so do they conduct him back to his
mother, the gardener's wife. From thence they return to the castle, and
are met by my lord and lady and all the servants, while I haste me in by
a side door to get on my Sunday kirtle and appear with the rest.
As time wore on, the three were as much together as when he was a little
lad and they lassies, and sometimes from a window, and sometimes from a
quiet coigne in the great hall (this very hall, ye mind, dears), I would
sit with my stitchery and mark them at their bright chatter.
But often Mistress Marian would come and sit against my knee, even as
thou art sitting now, sweetheart, and ask me to stroke her hair, and
when she would coax Lord Ernle's big blood-hound "Valor" to come and lie
beside her, she would sit more quiet, almost as though she were asleep.
And she would ask me ever and again, "Nurse, wherefore are women at any
time born with dark hair, to mar ev'n such small comeliness as they
might otherwise have?"
And always I would answer, "Tut! thou knowest not of what thou speakest,
my honey; in the sight o' some, dark hair is more comely than fair
hair." And always she would shake her head, and smile i' th' fashion o'
one who knows better than another. But she was a wondrous fair woman, in
spite o' her own thinking, and shaped like the brown metal wench over
yonder with the bow and arrows. Diana, say ye? Why, even so; so it was
that his lordship called her when he did not call her "comrade."
Now young Sir Rowland Nasmyth (him who was father to that Sir Rowland
who wedded your sister the Lady Anne last Michaelmas, ye mind, dears),
he would be often over for a day, or maybe several days, at the castle;
and all four would ride a-hawking, or ramble together, two by two,
through the park; or Lord Ernle and Sir Rowland would play at rackets,
and i' fecks 'twas a sight to see 'em at it! One day my little lady and
Sir Rowland (who was a fair stripling, with curls near the color o'
Mistress Marian's, and eyes the tinting o' the far sea on a rainy day)
did wander off together, and Mistress Marian and my lord were left
alone, seated on a rude bench under one o' th' great beech-trees that
flank the hall door. He leaned forward and rested an elbow on either
knee, and did let his racket swing back and forth between them, and sat
looking down on it. Mistress Marian's gaze was upon him, but her big hat
made so deep a shadow o'er her eyes withal that I could not note them
clearly. So stayed they for some moments.
Then all in a breath did Lord Ernle start erect and push back his heavy
locks and speak. "Comrade," saith he, "wilt thou call me an ass for my
pains, I wonder, an I tell thee o' something that is troubling me
sorely?"
She, having in no wise moved from her first position, and her eyes still
in shadow, saith, "I pray thee say on, Ernle, for such words as thou
hast just spoken to me are idle."
And he leaned forward and took one of her long brown hands in his, but
'twas different from the way in which he had ta'en my little lady's hand
at their first meeting, and he saith, "Comrade, for thou hast e'er been
my true and loyal comrade, Marian--sweet comrade-cousin--this is the
matter that doth eat my heart. Dost think there is aught between
Patience and that young coxcomb?"
There came a red mark all across her brow, as though he had smitten her,
for with her sudden movement her hat had fallen upon the ground at her
feet. And she put up her hand to her side as if in pain, but snatched it
back quickly. And for one heart-beat she shut her eyes. My lord, who had
stooped forward to lift her hat, saw none o' this, and when the hat was
again upon her brow and its shadow over her face, she seemed the same as
ever. But I knew the shaft was in her heart, and my heart seemed to feel
it, for I loved her dearly. When he could wait no longer, he said,
"Well, comrade?"
And she spoke, for from the hair that crowned her to the feet that
carried her she was as brave as any Cavalier that ever swung sword for
the King, and she said, "Well indeed, cousin, for thee."