"Indeed I have, dear heart, and more than once. Shall I show it you?" And therewith he drew from his bosom a small, well-worn volume, and put it in my hand. Almost mechanically I opened it, and the first words I read were these, which I had so often heard from my step-dame: "Sufficient unto the time is the evil thereof."
At this moment we were interrupted by a call, and one of the servants came to bid us to supper.
"Richard," said I, "will you lend me this book?"
"No," he answered, taking it from my hands. "I will take no such responsibility; but if you would read it, ask your step-dame to give it you. She is as great a favorer of the new doctrine as my Lady Denny herself. But, Rosamond, if you mean to go back to your convent, I rede you let the book alone."
"And why so?" I asked.
"Because, an you read and believe it, you will never go back there," answered Dick; and that was all I could get out of him.
Dick is changed, but not as Mistress Bullen said. He is far graver, and more manly than he used to be. He has lost most of his old blundering bashfulness, and seems indeed not to think of himself at all. The very expression of his face is changed, yet he has all his old kind ways, and is just as ready to do service to gentle and simple.
It is odd he never so much as noticed the change in my dress.
I am vexed when I think of the coil that was made about poor Dick's simple offering. If dear Mother had only opened it—but she will know when I write to her.
To-morrow is May-day, and is like to be fine. If so we shall go down as usual, and see the dances on the green, and perhaps join in them. My Lord and Lady have promised to grace us with their presence. I fear she will think our country ways but rude and boisterous, as she has lived all her life in town and about the Court; though in her manners she is as modest and simple as any country maid.