“You are better, I trust, my lord, as I see you abroad,” said Northberry.
“Thanks, Sir Walter—yes, I am better, and I came to bring a parting gift to the children. Here, Mistress Eleanor and Mistress Kate—are not those the English titles?—come here and choose.”
He held out two little jewelled copies of the cross of his order as he spoke, and the little girls approached him, well pleased; but Eleanor said—
“We are Leonor and Catalina. I will not kiss any one who calls me Eleanor.”
“Fie, little one!” said her father; “it would become you better to ask my lord for his blessing on your journey.”
“If I could help it I would not go,” said Leonor; while the gentler Catalina was silent, and softly stroked the fur trimming of Fernando’s mantle.
“See, now,” he said, coaxingly, “my brother Dom Pedro has been in this terrible England, and he liked it well. Why, the little King Harry is my cousin, and he has made my brother Knight of the Order of the Garter. We have all cousins in England.” Leonor appeared somewhat consoled.
“And besides, do you not know,” said the Prince more gravely, “that wherever God may send us, He will be with us—ay, in a desert or a dungeon? Then surely in a strange country, where He will send you kind friends.”
Catalina looked at him with eyes of deep earnestness. Nell said frankly, “My lord Dom Pedro has come safe home again.”
“Yes, little one, and soon we shall see his marriage with Doña Blanca of Urgel. My brother Dom Pedro has been a great traveller. He tells us wonderful things. You, my little maidens, will see some of them.”