"Ah! they may not be left loose like wolves among sheep. I must depart with all speed in answer to this summons," said Sir Miles; and he glanced at his wife to see what she would say to this sudden termination of their visit.
Lady Paton looked perplexed. Like her husband she had found this return to her old home and the great world very pleasant; and she was charmed and helped by the new order of preaching introduced by the Reformers. She said something about hoping to learn more from Master Latimer before she went home.
"Well, sweetheart, shall I leave you here for awhile?" said Sir Miles, with a wistful look at his wife.
"She will be right welcome," said her father; "though, I doubt not, Master Latimer will say, as he hears aught of this coil, that it is not the amount of God's truth that we know, but what we do, that makes us true Reformers, and true Christians. But this is a matter you must decide for yourselves," he added. "You must bid your messenger rest, Miles, and his beast, too, if you think of starting on your journey to-morrow."
As Sir Harry Guildford said this, he left the room to go and tell his wife of the sudden change in affairs, for he had little doubt what Cicely's decision would be when she had time to think calmly over the matter.
He had thought a good deal about this projected suppression of the monasteries; and he knew that, unless the revenues of these poor and smaller houses were devoted to the providing pensions for those who should be expelled, the want and misery of the kingdom would be increased tenfold, for another army of beggars would be let loose upon the world. Under these circumstances, travelling would become more difficult and dangerous than ever; and so, it was not a question of Lady Paton staying a few days or weeks longer at Greenwich, for it might be many months before an opportunity occurred for the journey to Woodstock to be undertaken.
Sir Miles said something of this as Sir Harry Guildford left the room. "Miles, we have never been parted since you took me to your home," murmured the lady, dropping her eyes to the floor for a minute. Then she lifted them and turned to her husband. "I cannot let you go without me," she whispered, as she rose and threw herself into his arms. But, having made her decision, she burst into tears of regret that this pleasant visit had been so summarily ended. "I did so want to stay a little longer with mother and Maud. Poor Maud! she has no children, and does not even want them, because she would not be allowed to teach them the truths she has learned to love, and her life would be more bitter than it is."
"Poor Maud!" said Sir Miles pityingly, as he caressed his wife. "It is well she lives here close at hand, that she may have the comfort of coming home very often. She needs the old home more than you do, my Cicely."
"Yes, she does, and I can see that God is good to both of us."
"Yes, and I am not without hope that Walter may yet learn that there is something more than new opinions to be learned from God's Word, and that it is something better than mere perversity, that sets men's hearts upon studying it at all costs."