The lady's brothers were penniless Cavaliers, and one of
them made her house his home, and a centre of Royalist plots and
intelligences, which excited Emlyn very much by the certainty that
something was going on, though what it was, of course, she did not
know; and at any rate there was coming and going, and all sorts of
people were to be seen at the merchant's hospitable table, all manner
of news to be had here, there, and everywhere, with which she
delighted to entertain Steadfast, and show her own importance.
It was not often good news as regarded the Cavalier cause, for
Cromwell was fixing himself in his seat; and every endeavour to hatch
a scheme against him was frustrated, and led to the flight or death
of those concerned in it. However, so long as Emlyn had something to
tell, it made little difference whether the tidings were good or bad,
whether they concerned Admiral Blake's fleet, or her mistress's
little Italian greyhound. By-and-by however instead of Mrs. Henshaw,
there came to market Madam Ayliffe, her mother, a staid, elderly
lady, all in black, who might as well, Emlyn said, have been a
Puritan.
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