es, "and I have been at work like this long
enough, ay, and too long!"

"Thy turn was a matter of three hours this morning," replied Kit--not
coolly, for nobody was cool in his den, but with a brevity which
provoked a laugh.

"I shall see what my cousin the master saith!" cried Giles, in great
wrath.

"Ay, that thou wilt," returned Kit, "if thou dost loiter over thy
business, and hast not those bars ready when called for."

"He never meant me to be put on work like this, with a hammer that
breaks mine arm."

"What! crying out for that!" said Edmund Burgess, who had just come in
to ask for a pair of tongs. "What wouldst say to the big hammer that
none can wield save Kit himself?"

Giles felt there was no redress, and panted on, feeling as if he were
melting away, and with a dumb, wild rage in his heart, that could get no
outlet, for Smallbones was at least as much bigger than he as he was
than Stephen. Tibble was meanwhile busy over the gilding and enamelling
of Buckingham's magnificent plate armour in Italian fashion, but he had
found time to thrust into Ambrose's hand an exceedingly small and
curiously folded billet for Lucas Hansen, the printer, in case of need.
"He would be found at the sign of the Winged Staff in Paternoster Row,"
said Tibble, "or if not there himself, there would be his servant who
would direct Ambrose to the place where the Dutch printer lived and
worked." No one was at leisure to show the lad the way, and he set out
with a strange feeling of solitude, as his path began decisively to be
away from that of his brother.

He did not find much difficulty in discovering the quadrangle on the
south side of the minster where the minor canons lived near the deanery;
and the porter, a stout lay brother, pointed out to him the doorway
belonging to Master Alworthy. He knocked, and a young man with a
tonsured head but a bloated face opened it. Ambrose explained that he
had brought a letter from the Warden of Saint Elizabeth's College at
Winchester.

"Give it here," said the young man.

"I would give it to his reverence himself," said Ambrose.

"His reverence is taking his after-dinner nap and may not be disturbed,"
said the man.

"Then I will wait," said Ambrose.

The door was shut in his face, but it was the shady side of the court,
and he sat down on a bench and waited. After full an hour the door was
opened, and the canon, a good-natured looking man, in a square cap, and
gown and cass