May Our Lady of Walsingham bless and reward thee!" "Sir," answered Sibyll, gently withdrawing her hands from his clasp, "our poor cares have been a slight return for thy generous protection to myself." "To thee! ah, forgive me--how could I be so dull?
I remember thy face now; and, perchance, I deserve the disaster I met with in leaving thee so discourteously.

My heart smote me for it as my light footfall passed from thy side." A slight blush, succeeded by a thoughtful smile--the smile of one who recalls and caresses some not displeasing remembrance--passed over Sibyll's charming countenance, as the sufferer said this with something of the grace of a well-born man, whose boyhood had been taught to serve God and the Ladies.
There was a short pause before she answered, looking down, "Nay, sir, I was sufficiently beholden to you; and for the rest, all molestation was over.

But I will now call your nurse--for it is to our servant, not us, that your thanks are due--to see to your state, and administer the proper medicaments." "Truly, fair damsel, it is not precisely medicaments that I hunger and thirst for; and if your hospitality could spare me from the larder a manchet, or a corner of a pasty, and from the cellar a stoup of wine or a cup of ale, methinks it would tend more to restore me than those potions which are so strange to my taste that they rather offend than tempt it; and, pardie, it seemeth to my poor senses as if I had not broken bread for a week!" "I am glad to hear you of such good cheer," answered Sibyll; "wait but a moment or so, till I consult your physician." And, so saying, she closed the door, slowly descended the steps, and pursued her way into what seemed more like a vault than a habitable room, where she found the single servant of the household.

Time, which makes changes so fantastic in the dress of the better classes, has a greater respect for the costume of the humbler; and though the garments were of a very coarse sort of serge, there was not so great a difference, in point of comfort and sufficiency, as might be supposed, between the dress of old Madge and that of some primitive servant in the North during the last century.

The old woman's face was thin and pinched; but its sharp expression brightened into a smile as she caught sight, through the damps and darkness, of the gracious form of her young mistress.