"Well, Amy Taylor, tell me where your friends live, and if you know what dowry was paid with you when you came to this house."
But the girl could only shake her head at these questions. She had lived with the sisters at the convent all her life, she said. She would be a novice by-and-bye, she hoped, but now she only helped the lay sisters. In short, she was the little drudge of the household, who had been hastily fetched from the kitchen, and dressed in the habit of a novice for the occasion, and these facts the commissioner soon elicited from the frightened girl.
"You may go back to the kitchen now, my little wench," said the commissioner. "I have no wish to take a useful servant away from these ladies." Then, turning to the Mother once more, he said, "Will you fetch me the true Cicely, or shall I have to close this house in consequence of the rebellion of its Superior to the command of the Cardinal Legate, who administers the affairs of the Church in this realm as the Holy Father himself." He felt obliged to remind the lady that he was armed with power to put a summary end to her rule, in the hope that the hint would be taken, and the true Cicely produced.
Finding that the commissioner was not to be hoodwinked, and would not proceed to the other part of his work until the girl he asked for was brought before him, she at last reluctantly sent one of the elder nuns, who had come to take charge of the novices while they were waiting, to fetch Cicely; and this time there was no mistaking the sweet, shy face Miles had learned to love. But it was sadly changed. There was a deep and abiding look of sorrow in the large grey eyes, and deep rings beneath told of broken health and sleepless nights; while the look of terror that mantled her face when the Mother-Superior spoke, was sufficient to tell both men what she had endured although she had been here such a short time.
As Cicely drew near the table the Mother contrived to change her position, and sit so that she could command a view of the girl, and also make her feel that she was being watched.
So when Master Baldock said, "Now, Cicely Guildford, I have come by the command of my Lord Cardinal to ask you some questions, which your father would have propounded to you if his duty to the King would have suffered him to come with me on this journey. First, are you happy in this household?"
But, instead of answering at once, Cicely glanced timidly round at the elder lady, and then slowly answered, in a mechanical tone.
"Madam, I must request you to change your seat, and leave my witness to answer me alone."
"I have not spoken to the witness," said the Mother, indignantly.
"But you are frightening her, and if you do not move I shall send the whole of these girls to their friends without further parley."