"Ah you take me for a blind fool then, I suppose," foamed the old man in his wrath. "You bring me here to see this girl, and think I shall see no more than if she was her sister Elizabeth."
"I know not what you have seen, sir," said Miles, his voice trembling, "but I can assure you—"
"And I say you are a liar, if you are my son, for it is plain as the nose on your face that you are in love with the wench, and she with you!"
"Father! father! remember you are speaking of a lady who is quite a stranger to you."
"And you would have me believe she is a stranger to you too, I suppose," sneered Sir Thomas.
"Nay, father—did I not tell you that Sir Harry Guildford had been good enough to welcome me as a friend of his family? I told you that I came to Greenwich sometimes to visit these friends, as well as when my duty of attending the Cardinal brought me to the Court."
"But you did not tell me that you were in love with this girl!"
Miles was about to say that he did not know it himself, until his father made the discovery; but he thought it would be wiser to be silent about this, until he had had the opportunity of seeing Mistress Cicely again, when perhaps he might be better able to judge whether his father's surmise was correct as to her feeling towards him.
Now, however, in the confusion and tumult of his feelings—hopes and fears—he could only feel thankful that he was not obliged to go back at once and face his friends, for how could he speak calmly to Mistress Cicely, until he had time to put his own thoughts in order? So he was not sorry when the barge was pushed off from the Palace stairs: and the presence of the rowers at one end, though it did not prevent talking, hindered his father from scolding and raving, as he might have done.
The old knight, however, was no less earnest in pressing upon him the claims of Lady Audrey; until at last, for peace sake, Miles agreed that the case of such a marriage should be submitted to some learned priest, that an independent opinion might be obtained upon that point before any more was said about it; though he was careful at the same time to guard against giving any hope, that he would follow the royal example in this matter of his marriage.