Katharine looked at her pitifully.
'Child,' she said, 'it was not I that spoke of thy menfolk.'
'Get thyself mewed up,' Cicely repeated more hotly; 'thou wilt set all this world by the ears. This is no place for virtues learned from learned books. This is an ill world where only evil men flourish.'
The old knight still fidgeted to be gone.
'Nay,' Katharine said seriously, 'ye think I will work mine own advantage with the King. But I do swear to thee I have it not in my mind.'
'Oh, swear not,' Cicely mumbled, 'all the world knoweth thee to be that make of fool.'
'I would well to get me made a nun—but first I will bring nunneries back from across the seas to this dear land.'
Cicely laughed again—for a long and strident while.
'You will come to no nunnery if you wait till then,' she said. 'Nuns without their heads have no vocation.'
'When Cromwell is down, no woman again shall lose her head,' Katharine answered hotly.