his wife:
but he said he would never urge Thekla to wed any, contrariwise unto her
own fantasy."

The Monday morning brought Mrs Rose. Isoult felt glad, when she saw
her, that John had taken Robin with him to Westminster. The two ladies
had a long private conference in Isoult's closet or boudoir. Mrs Rose
evidently was not going to stand in the way; she rather liked the
proposed match. She had strongly urged her husband to tell Thekla,
which, against his own judgment, he had at last consented to do. For
Thekla's mother regarded her as a marvel of wisdom and discretion, while
her father, being himself a little wiser, thought less of her wonderful
powers, though he admitted that she was very sensible--for her years.

"She is a good child--Thekla," said Mrs Rose, in her foreign manner; "a
good child--but she dreameth too much. She is not for the life, rather
a dreamer. She would read a great book each day sooner than to spin.
But she doth the right; she knoweth that she must to spin, and she spin.
But she carrieth her thoughts up a great way off, into strange gear
whither I cannot follow. See you, Mistress Avery, how I would say? I,
I am a plain woman: I make the puddings, I work the spinning--and I love
the work. Thekla, she only work the spinning and make the puddings,
because she must to do it. She will do the right, alway, but she will
not love the work."

Isoult quite understood her, and so she told her.

"She do not come after me in her liking," pursued she, "rather it is her
father. And it is very good, very good to read the great books, and
look at the stars, and to talk always of what the great people do, and
of what mean the prophet by this, and the saint by that: but for me it
is too much. I do not know what the great people should do. I make my
puddings. The great people must go their own way. They not want my
pudding, and I not want their great things. But Thekla and Mr Rose are
both so good! Only, when they talk together, they sit both of them on
the top of my head; I am down beneath, doing my spinning."

Nothing more was heard until Wednesday. Then, before Isoult was down in
the morning, having apparently risen at some unearthly hour, Mr Rose
presented himself, and asked for John. The two went out of doors
together, to Robin's deep concern, and not much less to Isoult's, for
she had her full share of womanly curiosity in an innocent way.

At last she saw them come up the street, in