reason for stealing down to the Temple many an evening after work was
done, declaring that birds never learnt so well as after dark.
Moreover, he had possessed himself of a chess board, and insisted that
Aldonza should carry on her instructions in the game; he brought her all
his Holy Cross Day gain of nuts, and he used all his blandishments to
persuade Mrs Randall to come and see the shooting at the popinjay, at
Mile End.

All this made the good woman uneasy. Her husband was away, for the
dread of sweating sickness had driven the Court from London, and she
could only take counsel with Tibble Steelman. It was Hallowmas Eve, and
Giles had been the bearer of an urgent invitation from Dennet to her
friend Aldonza to come and join the diversions of the evening. There
was a large number of young folk in the hall--Jasper Hope among them--
mostly contemporaries of Dennet, and almost children, all keen upon the
sports of the evening, namely, a sort of indoor quintain, where the
revolving beam was decorated with a lighted candle at one end, and at
the other an apple to be caught at by the players with their mouths,
their hands being tied behind them.

Under all the uproarious merriment that each attempt occasioned, Tibble
was about to steal off to his own chamber and his beloved books, when,
as he backed out of the group of spectators, he was arrested by Mistress
Randall, who had made her way into the rear of the party at the same
time.

"Can I have a word with you, privily, Master Steelman?" she asked.

Unwillingly he muttered, "Yea, so please you;" and they retreated to a
window at the dark end of the hall, where Perronel began--

"The alderman's daughter is contracted to young Giles, her kinsman, is
she not?"

"Not as yet in form, but by the will of the parents," returned Tibble,
impatiently, as he thought of the half-hour's reading which he was
sacrificing to woman's gossip.

"An it be so," returned Perronel, "I would fain--were I Master Headley--
that he spent not so many nights in gazing at mine Alice."

"Forbid him the house, good dame."

"Easier spoken than done," returned Perronel. "Moreover, 'tis better to
let the matter, such as it is, be open in my sight than to teach them to
run after one another stealthily, whereby worse might ensue."

"Have they spoken then to one another?" asked Tibble, beginning to take
alarm.

"I trow not. I deem they know not yet what draweth them together."

"Pish, they