he Chancellery,
and merry will we feast and devise beneath the gilded roofs.' Her eyes
sought the brown beams that ceiled the long room. 'I have heard that
chancellors have always gilded roofs.'

Again the tenderness overcame him for the touch of simple pride in her
voice. And the confession slipped from his lips:

'Poor befooled soul! Shalt never be a chancellor's dame.'

She was sobbing a little.

'Oh aye,' she said; 'thou shalt yet be chancellor, and I will baste
thy cooks' ribs an they baste not thy meat full well.' Such a man as
he would find favour with princes for his glosing tongue--aye, and
with queens too. At that she covered her face with her apron, and from
beneath it her voice came forth:

'If this Kat Howard come to be queen, shall not the old faith be
restored?'

The recollection of this particular certainty affected the magister
like a stab, for, if the old faith came back, then assuredly marriages
by friars should again be acknowledged. He cursed himself beneath his
breath: he was loath to leave the woman in the ditch, her trusting
face and pleasing ways stirred the strings of his heart. But he was
more than loath that the wedding should hold a wedding. He shook his
perplexity from him with starting towards the door.

'Time to be gone!' he said, and added, 'Be certain and take care that
no Englishman heareth of wedding betwixt thee and me.' It must in
England work his sure undoing.

She removed her apron and nodded gravely.

'Aye,' she said, 'that is certain enow with Court ladies, such as they
be to-day.' But she asked that when he went among women she should
hear nothing of it. For she had had three husbands and several
courtiers to prove it upon, that it is better to be lied to than to
know truth.

'There is in the world no woman like to thee!' he said with a great
sincerity. Once more she nodded.

'Aye, that is the lie that I would hear,' she said. On his part, he
started suddenly with pain.

'But thee!' he uttered.

'Aye,' she cried again, 'that too is needed. But be very certain of
this, that not easily will I plant upon thy brow that which most
husbands wear!' She paused, and once more rubbed her hands. Courteous
she must be, since her calling called therefor. But assuredly, having
had three husbands, she had had embraces enow to crave little for men.
And, if she did that which few good women have a need to--save very
piteous women in ballads--she would suffer him to belabour he