Part 10 (1/2)
”Marabel! Never heard I none to speak after this manner! Soothly, our Lord died for us: but--”
”But--yet was it not rightly for us, thee and me, but for some folks a long way off, we cannot well say whom?”
Amphillis span and thought--span fast, because she was thinking hard: and Marabel did not interrupt her thoughts.
”But--we must merit it!” she urged again at last.
”Dost thou commonly merit the gifts given thee? When man meriteth that he receiveth--when he doth somewhat, to obtain it--it is a wage, not a gift. The very life and soul of a gift is that it is not merited, but given of free favour, of friends.h.i.+p or love.”
”I never heard no such doctrine!”
Marabel only smiled.
”Followeth my Lady this manner?”
”A little in the head, maybe; for the heart will I not speak.”
”And my La--I would say, Mistress Perrote?” Amphillis suddenly recollected that her mistress was never to be mentioned.
”Ask at her,” said Marabel, with a smile.
”Then Master Norman is of this fas.h.i.+on of thinking?”
”Ay. So be the Hyltons all.”
”Whence gat you the same?”
”It was learned me of my Lady Molyneux of Sefton, that I served as chamberer ere I came hither. I marvel somewhat, Amphillis, that thou hast never heard the same, and a Neville. All the Nevilles of Raby be of our learning--well-nigh.”
”Dear heart, but I'm no Neville of Raby!” cried Amphillis, with a laugh at the extravagance of the idea. ”At the least, I know not well whence my father came; his name was Walter Neville, and his father was Ralph, and more knew I never. He bare arms, 'tis true--gules, a saltire argent; and his device, '_Ne vile velis_.'”
”The self arms of the Nevilles of Raby,” said Marabel, with an amused smile. ”I marvel, Amphillis, thou art not better learned in thine own family matters.”
”Soothly. I never had none to learn me, saving my mother; and though she would tell me oft of my father himself, how good and true man he were, yet she never seemed to list to speak much of his house. Maybe it was by reason he came below his rank in wedding her, and his kin refused to acknowledge her amongst them. Thus, see you, I dropped down, as man should say, into my mother's rank, and never had no chance to learn nought of my father's matters.”
”Did thine uncle learn thee nought, then?”
”He learned me how to make patties of divers fas.h.i.+ons,” answered Amphillis, laughing. ”He was very good to me, and belike to my mother, his sister; but I went not to dwell with him until after she was departed to G.o.d. And then I was so slender [insignificant] a country maid, with no fortune, ne parts [talents], that my cousins did somewhat slight me, and keep me out of sight. So never met I any that should be like to wise me in this matter. And, the sooth to say, but I would not desire to dwell amongst kin that had set my mother aside, and reckoned her not fit to company with them, not for no wickedness nor unseemly dealing, but only that she came of a trading stock. It seemeth me, had such wist our blessed Lord Himself, they should have bidden Him stand aside, for He was but a carpenter's son. That's the evil of being in high place, trow.”
”Ah, no, dear heart! It hath none ado with place, high or low. 'Tis human nature. Thou shalt find a d.u.c.h.ess more ready to company with a squire's wife, oft-times, than the squire's wife with the bailiff's wife, and there is a deal further distance betwixt. It hangeth on the heart, not on the station.”
”But folks' hearts should be the better according to their station.”
Marabel laughed. ”That were new world, verily. The grace of G.o.d is the same in every station, and the like be the wiles of Satan--not that he bringeth to all the same temptation, for he hath more wit than so; but he tempteth all, high and low. The high have the fairer look-out, yet the more perilous place; the low have the less to content them, yet are they safer. Things be more evenly parted in this world than many think.
Many times he that hath rich food, hath little appet.i.te for it; and he that hath his appet.i.te sharp, can scarce get food to satisfy it.”
”But then things fit not,” said Amphillis.
”Soothly, nay. This world is thrown all out of gear by sin. Things fitted in Eden, be thou sure. Another reason is there also--that he which hath the food may bestow it on him that can relish it, and hath it not.”
The chapel bell tolled softly for the last service of the day, and the whole household a.s.sembled. Every day this was done at Hazelwood, for prime, s.e.xt, and compline, at six a.m., noon, and seven p.m.