ousin at Arundel
House, for to get you standing room with the maids yonder; but seeing
you have no mind thereto--I dare warrant Mistress Joan Silverton shall
not say me nay, and may be Mistress Argenta--"

"Come within, Clement, and eat a flaune," said Ricarda in a very
different tone, taking up a dish of cheese-cakes from the counter.
"When shall the jousting be?"

"Oh, it makes no bones, Mistress Ricarda. Your sister hath no mind
thereto, 'tis plain."

However, Clement suffered himself to be persuaded to do what he liked,
and Ricarda going close to her sister to fetch a plate, whispered to her
a few words of warning as to what she might lose by too much coldness,
whereupon the fair Alexandra thawed somewhat, and condescended to seem
slightly interested in the coming event. Ricarda, however, continued to
do most of the talking.

Clement Winkfield was scullion in the Bishop of Durham's kitchen, and
would have been considered in that day rather a good match for a
tradesman's daughter; for anything in the form of manufacture or barter
was then in a very mean social position. Domestic service stood much
higher than it does now; and though Mr Altham's daughters were
heiresses in a small way, they could not afford to despise Clement
Winkfield, except as a political stratagem.

"And what like shall the jousting be, Clement?" asked Ricarda, when that
young gentleman had been satisfactorily settled on a form inside the
shop, with a substantial cheese-cake before him--not a mere mouthful,
but a large oval tart from which two or three people might be helped.

"It shall be the richest and rarest show was seen this many a day, my
mistress," replied Clement, having disposed of his first bite. "In good
sooth, Mistress, but you wot how to make flaunes! My Lord hath none
such on his table."

"That was Saundrina's making," observed Ricarda with apparent
carelessness.

"Dear heart! That's wherefore it's so sweet, trow," responded Clement
gallantly.

Alexandra laughed languidly. "Come now, Clem, tell us all about the
jousting, like a good lad as thou art, and win us good places to see the
same, and I will make thee a chowet-pie [liver-pie] of the best," said
she, laying aside her affected indifference.

"By my troth, I'll talk till my tongue droppeth on the floor," answered
the delighted Clement; "and I have heard all of Will Pierpoint, that is
in my Lord of Arundel his stable, and is thick as incle-weaving with one
o