"You wouldn't like to go again just yet, eh, my dear?"
"No, mother. I do not know why. They were all very kind to me, and the Lord General wonderfully so—but there was a difference, a change I cannot describe. It was not that they were less kind——"
"I understand. Power changes every one. Open your letter, I want to know how Matilda is; her man was so uppish, I would not ask him a question."
Then Jane laid aside her bonnet and opened her letter. "She is at Lady Jevery's house, mother, and she longs to see me, and indeed I am in the same mind. We shall be sure to quarrel, but then——"
"You can both play at that game, and you hold your own very well. What is the use of a friend if you can't talk plain and straight to her? I like Matilda no worse for her little tempers. I would go to Jevery House in the morning. Whom did you see at the Cockpit?"
"Doctor John Owen for one. He has just been made Chancellor of Oxford, and General Cromwell expects great things from him. I saw also John Milton, who writes so beautifully, and he plays the organ like a seraph. And Doctor Wilkins was there one day, and he talked to us about his lunarian journey; and Mr. Jeremy Taylor called, and we had a little discourse from him; and Mrs. Lambert, and Mrs. Fleetwood, and Lady Heneage, and Mrs. Fermor, and many others paid their respects. It seemed to me there was much enforced courtesy, especially between Mrs. Fleetwood and Mrs. Ireton; but—changes are to be expected. Mrs. Cromwell and Lady Heneage used to be gossips, and kiss each other before they sat down to talk, and now they curtsey, and call each other 'my lady,' and speak of the last sermon, or Conscience Meeting. I saw Lord Neville several times, but had no private speech with him; and I heard Mary Cromwell say there was a purpose of marriage between him and Alice Heneage."
"'Tis very like."
"I do not think so. I am sure he loves me."
"Then he should say so, bold and outright."
"He said last night he was coming to see my father and you, and though he spoke the words as if they were mere courtesy, I read in his face the purpose of his visit. Mother, we shall need your good word with my father."