"Oh, they are great folks," answered Dame Yeo. "Sir Robert is heir to my Lord Stanton of Stanton, unless he should marry again and have children, and my lady is daughter to old Sir Stephen Corbet. They lived here once before a little while, but the lady was carried off by pirates and hardly rescued, and after that they took a dislike to the place. Some say," and here her voice sunk to a whisper, "that it was not pirates who carried her off, but that a priest was mixed up in it. I don't know. Any how, she is a most gracious lady, and I am right glad she hath come back. Well, Madam Corbet, I will send Dame Anne to you, an' you will."
"Do so," I answered. "And, dame, will you carry this little book to your daughter. 'Tis a copy of the Psalms in English, and will be easy for her to hold and read."
For poor Amy Yeo was held fast in bed by a broken joint which had never knit kindly and gave her great pain.
"Tell her my husband will come to see her as soon as he can."
The good woman departed well pleased, and it was not long before the woman she called Dame Anne, made her appearance. I saw at once that she was a lady, and made haste to set her an easy chair. She put on no airs, however, but seeing on what we were engaged, she went at once to work and showed that she knew what she was about.
"The lady sews like a Dutch woman!" said Mary Thornton.
"Nevertheless I have never been out of England," answered Dame Anne, smiling, "but I was convent-bred, and there we learned to handle our needles at least."
"Ay, and many another good thing beside," I answered. "I wonder sometimes what young ladies will do for education now the convents are put down?"
"Perhaps their mothers will keep them at home and teach them, which is the natural way, methinks," answered Dame Anne. "An' I had a daughter, I would never put her into any hands but my own."
I may as well say here, that we found Dame Anne one of our greatest helps in the parish. The woman who had kept a little school in the hamlet down by the shore—a very superior person by all accounts—had died about six months before, and the children were running wild. After making himself well acquainted with her, and having duly consulted with our lady of the manor, Dame Anne was installed by my husband in the office of school-mistress, and filled it to admiration as long as she lived.