"It is an affair of the Church," said Miles, eagerly. "A young girl has been forced to enter a convent to please the Queen, against her wish, and thereby our lives are both made sad and barren of all good," and as he spoke he fell on one knee, and poured out the whole story of his love for Cicely Guildford, almost forgetting, in the eagerness of his tale, that the Cardinal might have but trifling interest in such a small affair.
But Wolsey, who was a student of men as well as affairs, was noting, with an interest that drew his mind from his own anxieties for a time, the change that a few hours had wrought in his young secretary. He was a man now, ready to do and dare anything for the sake of the woman he loved, and, in spite of himself, the Cardinal could not help showing that he was greatly interested in what he heard.
"Ah! would that I were Pope, and I would put down half the convents and monasteries that now exist. There are far too many of these houses for the lazy and incompetent."
"Nay, but my Lady Cicely is not lazy. She is a most useful handmaid to her mother and father," interjected Miles, rather indignantly.
The Cardinal smiled, and said, "How long think you she will be either a useful or an industrious wench, shut up in a convent, which, you say, she hates?"
"She will fret herself ill," said Miles, "and then slowly pine away and die."
"Or else get into mischief and lead other sisters astray. Truly she has little vocation for the life of a nun I should say. But be silent about this matter, and of your having conferred with me upon it. I say not that you shall have the maiden for your wife, but I will see what can be done. Meanwhile, I want those letters answered with all despatch, for the messenger returns at daybreak, and they must be ready."
"They shall be ready, my lord," said Miles. But for the Cardinal interrupting him, he would have told him how he had given Mistress Cicely Guildford portions of the New Testament, which he had translated into English, and that the reading of God's Word would most certainly unfit her for such a life as she would be required to live as a nun.
If he had had time to tell this, he might have gone further and taken the Cardinal into his confidence as to the work going on in the city at "The Sign of the Golden Fleece," but fortunately the Cardinal's own action stopped this confidence, and Miles went to his own room, greatly cheered, for he knew that slight as was the hope that had been thus held out to him, his master would do his best to see that it was fulfilled. There was one difficulty that might prove very hard to overcome, and that was that Cicely had entered a convent the Queen was greatly interested in,—the Convent of St. Francis, at Greenwich.
Miles had also learned that prayer will often bring help and guidance when all other means fail, and so, before writing his despatches, he committed his care and anxiety for Cicely to God in prayer, and then he was better able to give his whole and undivided attention to the writing of his master's letters.