Therefore it suits all parties now to declare the
marriage. And that is the whole story, an' it please your ladyship."
"I warrant it did not please her ladyship at all," said Mr. Laurence
Fairfax, laughing at the recital.
"No. She turned and went away in a rage; then came back to expound her
views with respect to Rosy's origin. I begged to inform her that from
time immemorial king's jesters had been of the Jocund family--an office
to the full as dignified as the office of public barber. And a barber
her ladyship's great-grandfather was, and shaved His Majesty's lieges
for a penny. Mr. Cecil Burleigh waited for her outside, and to him
immediately she of course repeated the tale. How does it come to be a
concern of his, I should be glad to know?" Nobody volunteered to gratify
her curiosity, but Mr. Laurence Fairfax could have done so, no doubt.
Mr. Cecil Burleigh had not visited Minster Court that day: was this the
reason? Bessie was not absolutely indifferent to the omission, but she
had other diversions. That night she went up stairs with the young
mother (so young that Elizabeth could not fashion to call her by her
title of kindred) to view the boys in their cots, and saw her so loving
and tender over them that she could not but reflect how dear a companion
she must be to her philosopher after his lost Xantippe. She was such a
sweet and gentle lady that, though he had chosen to marry her privately,
he could have no reluctance in producing her as his wife.
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