"I did not know—" said she.
"Faith, madonna!" said I, "no more did I till this. I deduce but now that the Marquis of Falmouth is the person you discoursed of an hour since, with whom you hope to enter the Castle of Content."
"Ah, Will! dear Will, do not think lightly of me," she said. "My father—"
"Is as all of them have been since Father Adam's dotage," I ended; "and therefore is keeping fools and honest horses from their rest."
My cousin said, angrily, "You have been spying!"
"Because I know that there are horses yonder?" said I. "And fools here—and everywhere? Surely, there needs no argent-bearded Merlin come yawning out of Brocheliaunde to inform us of that."
He said, "You will be secret?"
"In comparison," I answered, "the grave is garrulous, and a death's-head a chattering magpie; yet I think that your maid, madonna,—"
"Beatris is sworn to silence."
"Which signifies she is already on her way to Monsieur de Puysange. She was coerced; she discovered it too late; and a sufficiency of tears and pious protestations will attest her innocence. It is all one." I winked an eye very sagely.