"_Ha, chetife_! will he come here?" said Dame Hilda: and we saw that it was bad news in her eyes. "Forsooth, nay!" replied Tamzine. "There be hues and cries all over for him, but man saith he is fled beyond seas." "Amen!" ejaculated Dame Hilda. "He may win to Cathay [China] by my good will; and if he turn not again till mine hair be white, then will I give my patron saint a measure in wax. But what saith my Lady?" "Her I saw not," answered Tamzine; "but Mistress Robergia, who told me, said she went white and red both at once, and her breast heaved as though her very heart should come forth." "Gramercy!" said Dame Hilda. "How some folks do set their best pearls in copper!" "Eh, our Lady love us!" responded Tamzine. "That's been ever sith world began to run, Dame, I can tell you." "I lack no telling, lass," was Dame Hilda's answer. "Never was there finer pearl set in poorer ore than that thou and I wot of." I remember that bit of talk because I puzzled myself sorely as to what Dame Hilda could mean. Kate was puzzled, too, for she said to Isabel-- "What means the Dame? I never saw my Lady wear a pearl set in copper." "Oh, let be!" said Isabel. "'Tis but one of the Dame's strange sayings. She is full of fantasies." But whether Isabel were herself perplexed, or whether she understood, and thought it better to shut our mouths, that cannot I tell to this day. Well, after that things were quiet again for a while: a very long while, it seemed to me. I believe it was really about six months. During that time, we saw much more of our mother than we used to do; she would come often into the nursery, and take one of the little ones on her lap--it was oftenest Blanche--and sit there with her. Sometimes she would talk with Dame Hilda; but more frequently she was silent and sad, at times looking long from the casement as if she saw somewhat that none other eyes could see. Jack said one day-- "Whither go Mother's eyes when she looks out of the window?" "For shame, Damsel [Note 3] John!" cried Dame Hilda. "`Mother,' indeed! Only common children use such a word. Say `my Lady' if you please." "She is my mother, isn't she?" said Jack stubbornly. "Why shouldn't I call her so, I should like to know? But you haven't answered me, Dame." "I know not what you mean, Damsel." "Why, when she sits down in that chair, and takes Blanchette on her knee,--her eyes go running out of the window first thing. Whither wend they?" "Children like you cannot understand," replied Dame Hilda, with one of those superior smiles which used to make me feel so very naughty. It seemed to say, "My poor, little, despicable insect, how could you dream of supposing that your intellect was even with Mine?" (There, I have writ that a capital M in red ink. To have answered to Dame Hilda's tone when she put that smile on, it should have been in vermilion and gold leaf.) Howbeit, Jack never cared for all the airs she put on.