I only glanced at my letter, reserving that and the contents of the package for the time when I should be alone. But though I knew my Lady was waiting, I did steal a few minutes for a fervent thanksgiving. When I went into the nursery, my Lady smiled, and said, in her usual kind way, but with a touch of gentle malice: "You must have found your walk pleasant, Margaret?" "I fear I have been gone too long, my Lady," I answered. "I went to Corby-End, and Madam detained me a little." "Oh!" said my Lady, significantly. "Well, what is the news at Corby-End? Hath my cousin any tidings of her son?" "Yes, my Lady," I answered. "Will Atkins is returned, and has brought a great package of letters to Madam, and some to my Lord, I believe, as well." "Oh!" said my Lady, again. "And doubtless Master Walter is well. When does he mean to return?" "In about a month," I told her. "I wish Walter would come home!" said Betty, a little plaintively. "It is not nearly so nice going out riding and walking, when I know he is not here, and there is no use in expecting him. We used to meet him so often, didn't we, Margaret? Mamma, what are you laughing at, and why does Margaret blush so?" "Never mind, Betty," answered my Lady, composing her face. "Little maidens should not ask too many questions." Betty looked far from satisfied, but she never disputes her mother's commands. When I had time to open Walter's package, I found it contained, among other keepsakes, a small thin volume of poems by Mr. John Milton, and a small but beautifully bound and printed prayer-book. "I know you have one already," Walter writes: "but it pleases my fancy to think of you using this book, which is besides of a convenient size for your pocket. I think you will like the poems. I hold not with Mr. Milton in all things, but he has more of the true poetic fire than any other man in this age." Walter says public affairs are very discouraging. The King, wholly governed by his wife and his own arbitrary temper, vexing and oppressing the subjects with monopolies, and all other little provoking exactions. The Archbishop punishing with the utmost rigor all "innovations," as he calls them, in religion, yet daily making more than any one else, and, as it is believed, urging on the king—Wentworth in Ireland pressing his scheme of "thorough," and as many think favoring the Papists against the Protestants.