d, indeed, the table now being spread by Mrs. Satchell's directions
bore out the assertion of Halfman. Jolly, white loaves, a grinning
boar's head, a pasty with a golden dome, a ham the color of a pink
flower, and a dish of cold game tempted hunger where flagons of white
wine and red wine tempted thirst. Halfman dismissed Mrs. Satchell
and her satellites affably.

"We can wait upon ourselves," he averred. "We shall be more private
so," and he motioned Evander to a seat and took his own place
opposite. "Yes," he said, resuming the thread of his thought, as he
piled a plate for Evander, "you did your best to starve us; we must
not do the like by you."

Evander smiled as he stayed the generosity of his host's hands and
accepted from his reluctance a plate less lavishly charged with
viands than Halfman had proposed to offer him.

"Yet," he said, "I think I heard, no later ago than yesterday, much
clatter of dishes and much rattling of cups and all the sounds of
plenty."

Halfman hurriedly bolted a goodly slice of ham lest it should choke
him while he laughed, which he now did heartily, lolling back in his
chair. He was honestly amused, and yet it seemed to Evander as if
there were something in his strange friend's mirth which was
carefully calculated to produce its effect. Indeed, Halfman, as he
laughed, was thinking of Sir John Falstaff's full-bodied thunders
over some ticklish misdoings of Bardolph or Nym. When he had enough
of his own performance, he allowed the laughter to die as suddenly as
it had dawned, and gave tongue.

"That was the best jest in the world," he chuckled. "Clatter of
dishes, say you, and rattle of cups. Once, when I was in Aleppo, I
heard an old fellow in an Abraham beard telling a tale to a crowd of
Moors. I had not enough of their lingo to know why they laughed, but
one who was with me that had more Moorish told me the tale. It was of
one who invited a poor man to his house and pretended to feed him
nobly, naming this fair dish and that fine wine, and pressing meat
and drink upon him, while all the while, in very mockery, there was
neither bite in any platter nor sup in any bottle. Well, excellent
sir, our table of yesterday was in some such case."

Evander nodded. "I guessed as much," he commented. "But, indeed, it
was bravely done."

"It was bravely devised," Halfman asserted. "It was my lady's
thought. She would never let a rascally Roundhead--I crave your
pardon, she would never let a