clear muslin, all open at the neck
and short enough to show her ankles and little feet, and tied with a
blue ribbon round the waist, a garb most innocent to look upon, and
more suited to a girl in her teens than to the Justice's wife, the
buxom mistress of Holker Hall.

Therefore Miles, not recognising her, did ask her if she were in truth
the woman of the house. To which she, seeing his uncertainty, answered
lyingly: 'No, that I am not, but if you would speak with Mistress
Preston, I will entreat her to come to you.'

Even as the words left her lips, Miles was sensible that she was
speaking falsely, seeing how, even under the paint, her cheeks took on
a deeper hue. And she, ever mindful that it was that same man who had
called her Jezebel, went into the house and returning presently with
another woman, declared that here was Mistress Preston, and demanded
what was his will with her. No sooner had she spoken a second time
than it was manifested to Miles with perfect clearness that she
herself and none other was the woman he sought. Wherefore, in spite of
her different dress and girlish mien, he said to her, 'Woman, how
darest thou lie before the Lord and His servant?'

And she, being silent, not speaking a word, he proceeded, 'Woman, hear
thou what the Lord's servant hath to say unto thee,--O woman, harden
not thy heart against the Lord, for if thou dost, He will cut thee off
in His sore displeasure; therefore take warning in time, and fear the
Lord God of Heaven and Earth, that thou mayest end thy days in peace.'
Having thus spoken he went his way; she, how proud soever, not seeking
to stay him nor doing him any harm, but standing there silent and dumb
under the tall pillars of the door, being withheld and stilled by
something, she knew not what.

Yet her thistle nature was not changed, though, for that time, her
prickles were blunted. It chanced that several years later, when
George Fox was a prisoner at Lancaster, this same gay madam came to
him and 'belched out many railing words,' saying among the rest that
'his tongue should be cut off, and he be hanged.' Instead of which, it
was she herself that was cut off and died not long after in a
miserable condition.

Thus did Mistress Preston of Holker Hall refuse to bow her haughty
spirit, yet the matter betwixt her and Miles ended not altogether
there. For it happened that another April day, some three springs
after Miles Halhead had encountered her the first time,