Sibyll pressed her clasped hands tightly to her bosom, but made no answer; and while she was summoning courage to say something that seemed to oppress her thoughts with intolerable weight, a footstep sounded gently near, and the Lady of Bonville (then on a visit to the queen), unseen and unheard by the two, approached the spot. She paused, and gazed at Sibyll, at first haughtily; and then, as the deep sadness of that young face struck her softer feelings, and the pathetic picture of father and child, thus alone in their commune, made its pious and sweet effect, the gaze changed from pride to compassion, and the lady said courteously,—
“Fair mistress, canst thou prefer this solitary scene to the gay company about to take the air in her grace’s gilded barge?”
Sibyll looked up in surprise, not unmixed with fear. Never before had the great lady spoken to her thus gently. Adam, who seemed for a while restored to the actual life, saluted Katherine with simple dignity, and took up the word,—
“Noble lady, whoever thou art, in thine old age, and thine hour of care, may thy child, like this poor girl, forsake all gayer comrades for a parent’s side!”
The answer touched the Lady of Bonville, and involuntarily she extended her hand to Sibyll. With a swelling heart, Sibyll, as proud as herself, bent silently over that rival’s hand. Katherine’s marble cheek coloured, as she interpreted the girl’s silence.
“Gentle sir,” she said, after a short pause, “wilt thou permit me a few words with thy fair daughter? And if in aught, since thou speakest of care, Lord Warwick’s sister can serve thee, prithee bid thy young maiden impart it, as to a friend.”
“Tell her, then, my Sibyll,—tell Lord Warwick’s sister to ask the king to give back to Adam Warner his poverty, his labour, and his hope,” said the scholar, and his noble head sank gloomily on his bosom.
The Lady of Bonville, still holding Sibyll’s hand, drew her a few paces up the walk, and then she said suddenly, and with some of that blunt frankness which belonged to her great brother, “Maiden, can there be confidence between thee and me?”
“Of what nature, lady?”
Again Katherine blushed, but she felt the small hand she held tremble in her clasp, and was emboldened,—