Master Groot had hesitated, seeing various difficulties in the
way of such a charge, and being by no means disposed towards Lady
Grisell's unwilling husband, as such, though in a professional
capacity he was interested in his treatment of his patient, and was
likewise touched by the good mien of the fine, handsome, straight-
limbed young man, who was lying unconscious on his pallet in a narrow
cell.
He had replied that he would answer the next day, when he had
consulted his wife and the ship-master, whose consent was needful;
and there was of course another, whom he did not mention.
As he told all the colour rose in Grisell's face, rosy on one side,
purple, alas, on the other. "O master, good master, you will, you
will!"
"Is it your pleasure, then, mistress? I should have held that the
kindness to you would be to rid you of him."
"No, no, no! You are mocking me! You know too well what I think!
Is not this my best hope of making him know me, and becoming his true
and--and--"
A sob cut her short, but she cried, "I will be at all the pains and
all the cost, if only you will consent, dear Master Lambert, good
Master Groot."
"Ah, would I knew what is well for her!" said Lambert, turning to his
wife, and making rapid signs with face and fingers in their mutual
language, but Grisell burst in -
"Good for her," cried she. "Can it be good for a wife to leave her
husband to be slain by the cruel men of York and Warwick, him who
strove to save the young Lord Edmund? Master, you will suffer no
such foul wrong.
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