"Please, my lady, I like new gowns and gingerbread too," replied Winifred, smiling. "My father has promised to bring me a new gown all the way from the Indies when he comes home again, and also a china pot full of sweetmeats." "That is spoken like a child again!" said Lady Peckham, smiling in her turn. "And now, Winifred, you shall stay and dine with Mrs. Alwright while I consider what is best for us to do. We must let her into the secret. I see no help for that, since we shall need her assistance, but I am sure of her, and indeed it is only her due. But oh, my maid, be careful. Remember how much may hang upon one careless word!" "I shall remember, my lady," said Winifred, quietly. While she could not help thinking that there was not much danger of her being careless so long as her own life and that of her friends depended upon her prudence, as well as the life of Mr. Arthur Carew. CHAPTER V. JACK'S MISFORTUNE. MRS. ALWRIGHT rose up with a firm and somewhat dissatisfied countenance, as her lady entered with Winifred. Fond as she was of the child, she was not well pleased that Winifred should have so long a conference with her lady from which she herself was excluded, and she had already prepared in her own mind a lecture upon forwardness and presumption of which she meant to give Winifred the benefit so soon as they should be alone together. This lecture, however, was destined never to be delivered. "Will you come with me, Alwright?" said Lady Peckham. "Winifred, you may remain here and amuse yourself, if you will, with the pictures in that great book on the table. Keep the door shut, and inform me if any one wants me." The book was well worth looking at, being a Bible illustrated with wood-cuts by Albert Durer, the father, as he might almost be called, of wood-engraving. Winifred almost forgot her mighty secret, as she studied the pictures of Joseph and his brethren, of David and Goliath, of Samson and the Queen of Sheba, and above all those in the Gospels, of the shepherds coming with their humble offerings, of the wise men presenting their gifts, and of Mary and Martha in their house at Bethany. Her natural good taste and feeling led her fully to appreciate the beauty and sentiment of the pictures, while her ignorance prevented her from seeing the various incongruities of scenery, costume, &c. For aught she knew, Jerusalem might have been adorned with just such steeples and gables, and Martha might have kept her dishes in just such an open carved dresser as that in the picture. She had not nearly finished the volume, when Mrs. Alwright appeared, her eyes red with weeping.