"I shall not be able to come tomorrow, Father," he said to the monk,
one day. "The earl and Sir Henry will be back tonight, and my uncle
says that I must keep near him, tomorrow; so that, if opportunity
offers, he may present me to the knight."
"I feared it would come to that," the monk said. "I wish they had all
stopped away, another three or four months; then you would have got
over your difficulty of piecing together syllables, so as to make up a
long word. 'Tis a thousand pities that you should stop altogether, just
when you are getting on so well."
"I will come as often as I can, Father, if you will let me."
"No, no, lad. I know what it is, when the family are at home. It will
be, 'Here, Oswald, ride with such a message;' or Hotspur, himself, may
be going out with a train, and you will have to accompany him. There
will always be something.
"Indeed, save but for your teaching, it is high time that the Percys
were back again; for there has already been a great deal of hot work,
on the border, and report says that the Scots are mustering strongly,
and that there is going to be a great raid into Cumberland; so you will
be busy, and so shall I. The lay brothers have made but a poor hand of
it, while I have been busy.
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