"
The Baron was fairly satisfied, and muttered that if the bairn was
fit only for a shaveling, it might be all right.
Poor child, would he ever be fit for that or any occupation of
manhood? However, Grisell had won permission to compound broths,
cakes, and possets for him, over the hall fire, for the cook and his
wife would not endure her approach to their domain, and with great
reluctance allowed her the materials. Bernard watched her operations
with intense delight and amusement, and tasted with a sense of
triumph and appetite, calling on his mother to taste likewise; and
she, on whose palate semi-raw or over-roasted joints had begun to
pall, allowed that the nuns had taught Grisell something.
And thus as time went on Grisell led no unhappy life. Every one
around was used to her scars, and took no notice of them, and there
was nothing to bring the thought before her, except now and then when
a fishwife's baby, brought to her for cure, would scream at her. She
never went beyond the castle except to mass, now and then to visit a
sick person, and to seek some of the herbs of which she had learnt
the use, and then she was always attended by Thora and Ridley, who
made a great favour of going.
Bernard had given her the greater part of his heart, and she soothed
his pain, made his hours happy, and taught him the knowledge she
brought from the convent. Her affections were with him, and though
her mother could scarcely be said to love her, she tolerated and
depended more and more on the daughter who alone could give her more
help or solace.
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