"And that Agatha!" was one of the ejaculations. Amphillis looked for enlightenment. "Why, she is full hand in glove with Ricarda. The one can do nought that the other knows not of. I dare be bound she is helping her to draw poor Master Norman into her net--for Agatha will have none of him; she's after Master Matthew." "Lack-a-day! I never thought nobody was after anybody!" said innocent Amphillis. "Keep thy seliness [simplicity], child!" said Perrote, smiling on her. "Nor, in truth, should I say `poor Master Norman,' for I think he is little like to be tangled either in Ricarda's web or Agatha's meshes. If I know him, his eyes be in another quarter--wherein, I would say, he should have better content. Ah me, the folly of men! and women belike-- I leave not them out; they be oft the more foolish of the twain. The good God assoil [forgive] us all! Alack, my poor Lady! It doth seem as if the Lord shut all doors in my face. I thought I was about to win Sir Godfrey over--and hard work it had been--and then cometh this Abbot of Darley, and slams the door afore I may go through. Well, the Lord can open others, an' He will. `He openeth, and none shutteth; He shutteth, and none openeth;' and blessed be His holy Name, He is easilier come at a deal than men. If I must tarry, it is to tarry His leisure; and He knows both the hearts of men, and the coming future; and He is secure not to be too late. He loves our poor Lady better than I love her, and I love her well-nigh as mine own soul. Lord, help me to wait Thy time, and help mine unbelief!" The ordeal of telling Lady Foljambe had to be gone through the next morning. She was even more angry than Perrote had anticipated, and much more than Amphillis expected. Ricarda was a good-for-nought, a hussy, a wicked wretch, and a near relative of Satan, while Amphillis was only a shade lighter in the blackness of her guilt. In vain poor Amphillis pleaded that she had never guessed Lady Foljambe's intention of sending for her cousin, and had never heard of it until she saw her. Then, said Lady Foljambe, unreasonable in her anger, she ought to have guessed it. But it was all nonsense! Of course she knew, and had plotted it all with her cousins. "Nay, Dame," said Perrote; "I myself heard you to say, the even afore Ricarda came, that it should give Phyllis a surprise to see her."