ie came in from the antechamber at her Grace's call; and smiling
when he saw what she wanted, he lifted the dog and set it outside.

"Have Dr Gardiner washed, prithee!" said the Duchess. "I love a clean
dog, but I cannot abide a foul one."

Isoult could not help laughing when she heard her Grace call her dog by
Bishop Gardiner's name.

"He is easier cleansed than his namesake," she resumed, shaking her
head. "If my Lord of Winchester win again into power, I count I shall
come ill off. As thou wist, Isoult, I have a wit that doth at times
outrun my discretion; and when I was last in London, passing by the
Tower, I did see Master Doctor Gardiner a-looking from, a little window.
And `Good morrow, my Lord!' quoth I, in more haste than wisdom; `'tis
merry with the lambs, now the wolves be kept close!' I count he will
not forgive me therefor in sharp haste."

Mr Bertie smiled and shook his head.

"Now, Bertie, leave thine head still!" said her Grace. "I know what
thou wouldst say as well as if I had it set in print. I am all
indiscreetness, and thou all prudence. He that should bray our souls
together in a mortar should make an excellent wit of both."

"Your Grace is too flattering, methinks," said Mr Bertie, still smiling.

"Am I so, verily?" answered she. "Isoult, what thinkest thou? 'Twas
not I that gave the dog his name; it was Bertie here (who should be
'shamed of his deed, and is not so at all) and I did but take up the
name after him. And this last summer what thinkest yon silly maid
Lucrece did? (one of the Duchess's waiting-women, a fictitious person).
Why, she set to work and made a rochet in little, and set it on the
dog's back. Heardst thou ever the like? And there was he, a-running
about the house with his rochet on him, and all trailing in the mire. I
know not whether Annis were wholly free of some knowledge thereof--nor
Bertie neither. He said he knew not; I marvel whether he spake truth!"

"That did I, an't like your Grace," replied Mr Bertie, laughing. "I saw
not the rochet, neither knew of it, afore yourself."

"Well, I count I must e'en crede thee!" said she.

It struck Isoult that the Duchess and her gentleman usher were
uncommonly good friends; rather more so than was usual at that time.
She set it down to their mutual Lutheranism; but she might have found
for it another and a more personal reason, which they had not yet
thought proper to declare openly. The Duchess and Bertie w