"Well, well, she was a trial, no doubt, but there are others as bad. This is a life of trial, sweetheart, in one way and another. But it grows dark and I must go. I will see you again in a day or two, if you are no worse for this visit." I slept well that night and awoke feeling quite myself. From that day my recovery was rapid. The doctor said I might soon leave my chamber, and he advised my mistress that it would be well to send me to Master Davis's, for a while, or else to the country, for change of scene. "How would you like to go down to Master Yates's farm?" asked my aunt one day when we were discussing the matter. "You remember you staid there when you were getting over the ague, before you went to the convent." "Then the old people are still living?" I said. "Oh, yes; hale and hearty and well-to-do, and would be glad to have you for a guest. I think it would be a very good thing for you." "And the Duchess?" "I mentioned the matter to her and she agreed with me that it would be a sensible move, though she disliked losing your company. But she is not one to think of herself." "That she is not," said I. "She is a most sweet creature. She shows the truth of what dear Margaret used to say, that it is not wealth nor the want thereof that spoils people, but the spirit in which they take it." "Then you will like to go out to Holworthy farm?" said my aunt. "Indeed I shall," I answered, and the Duchess coming in (as indeed she was used to visit me every day), the matter was settled. "I must visit Mrs. Patience before I go," said I. "How is the dear old lady?" "Why well," answered Mrs. Curtis, but there was something in her tone that made me ask at once: "Is she dead?" "Even so," answered Mistress Curtis, solemnly; "but do not weep for her, dear Loveday. She passed in the greatest peace and joy that was ever seen. She told Master Walter, who prayed often beside her, that you had taught her the true way of peace, and had comforted her concerning the great sorrow of her life." "I am most thankful, if it were so," said I, when I could speak; and then I told Mistress Curtis of the dear loyal soul's trouble because no one had made the pilgrimage to Walsingham on behalf of her dead mistress. "And was it even so, poor soul?" said Mistress Curtis. "I doubt not, many hearts are aching from the same cause in these days of change and shaking. May the time soon come when all shall know the blessing of a free redemption. Master Corbet says he never saw any one pass more peacefully than Mistress Patience." "Is my cousin well?" I forced myself to say. I had never yet brought myself to speak his name.