“Wilt thou suffer aught if thou tarry?”
Agnes shook her head.
“Then come in hither.” And she pulled her into her own room, and shut the door. “Agnes, there is some strange thing I cannot understand: and I will understand it. What letteth (hinders) thee to speak to me of my mother?”
Agnes looked astonished at Philippa’s tone, as well she might. “It hath been forbidden, Lady.”
“Who forbade it?”
The lavender’s compressed lips sufficiently intimated that she did not mean to answer that question.
“Why was it forbidden?”
The continued silence replied.
“When died she? Thou mayest surely tell me so much.”
“I dare not, Lady,” replied Agnes in a scarcely audible whisper.