Kent paid his visit to Cardiff in the winter, accompanied by Constance's pet brother, Lord Richard of Conisborough, who had been promoted to his father's old dignity of Earl of Cambridge. It was the first time that the Dowager had seen either; and she afterwards communicated her impressions of the pair to Maude, as they sat together at work. "As touching the Lord Richard, he is gent and courteous enough; he were no ill companion, an' he knew his own mind a little better. Mayhap three of him, or four, might make a man amongst them." For Cambridge, though in a much fainter degree, reflected his father's character by finding it very difficult to say no. "And what thinks your Ladyship of my Lord of Kent?" asked Maude with some anxiety. The Dowager shook the loose threads from her work with a peculiar little laugh. "Marry, my maid, what think I of my Lord of Kent his barber, and his tailor?" said she; "for they made my Lord of Kent betwixt them. He is not a man of God's making." "But think you, Madam, he is to be trusted or no?" "Trusted!--for what? To oil his golden locks, and perfume well his sudary, and have his sleeves of the newest cutting? Ay, forsooth, and that right worthily!" "I meant," explained Maude, "to have a care of our Lady." "Maybe he shall keep her in ointment for her hair," returned the Dowager. The Earl of Kent returned to Court, and for some time stayed there. He was rather too busy to prosecute his wooing. The Lord Thomas of Lancaster, one of the King's sons, was projecting and executing an expedition from Calais to Sluys, and he took Kent with him; so that, with one or another obstacle arising, Constance's second marriage was not quite so quick in coming as Maude had expected. But at last it did come. The Duke of York and his Duchess--not long married--and the Earl of Cambridge, journeyed to Cardiff for their sister's wedding. The Duchess of York, though both an heiress and a beauty, left no mark on her time. She was by profession at least a Lollard; and since Lollardism was not now walking in silver slippers, this says something for her. But in all other respects she appears to have been one of those beautiful, mindless women whom clever men frequently marry. Perhaps no woman with a decided character of her own would have ventured on such a husband as Edward Duke of York.