"Of course. Do you know, Mistress Corbet, a lady tried to make me think I owed no obedience to my step-dame, because the king is mine uncle—what do you think?" "I think you are the most imprudent young lady that ever talked to a stranger," was my thought, but I said— "I am not the proper person to advise you, my Lady Frances, but if you will know what mine opinion is, I think that the precept—'Children obey your parents in the Lord,' comes from one greater than all the kings and princes of the earth. I think also that any young maid, gentle or simple, might be thankful to have such a step-dame as my mistress." "And so do I," she answered warmly. "And I won't be set against her by any of them." At this moment the door was opened by a severe-looking lady whom I had never seen before. Starch was not used in those days, or I might think she had been fed on nothing else since she was born, so stiffly did she carry herself. "My Lady Frances, what are you doing here?" said she, in that kind of tone which excites rebellion in the heart of the best child that ever lived. "Methinks you forget what is due to your rank in talking thus familiarly with this—you are her Grace's chamber-woman if I mistake not!" she added, turning to me in a way that made her words a downright insult. I simply courtesied. "How do you know whether I was talking familiarly or not?" demanded Lady Frances, saucily enough. "Were you at your old trick of eavesdropping?" The gouvernante, for such she was, colored through all her rouge and powder, but she deigned no reply, save to bid Lady Frances follow her. But I think she kept her not long, for when I went to my mistress, I found Lady Frances kneeling by her side, playing with the tassels of her girdle and coaxingly preferring some request. "So, Mistress Corbet, what mischief have you and this child been hatching up between you?" asked her Grace. "Here she is begging and beseeching that you may give her lessons, she having, as she says, fallen in love with your playing. What say you? Will you take such a troublesome office upon yourself as the instruction of a perverse child?" she added, pulling her step-daughter's ear. I told her I would willingly give Lady Frances all the help in my power if her Grace could spare me the time. "Well, well, my Frances, we will talk to your father, and see what he has to say. But mind, Loveday, I am to have you to read aloud to me, and attend me on the water all the same. 'Tis sheer cruelty to take poor Mandeville into a boat." I could not but think my time was likely to be fully occupied, but I never was afraid of work.