it would ever
come off, but I thought not of this sending him beyond seas, to make
merchandise of him. And you call yourself an alderman! The gown should
be stript off the back of you, and shall be, if there be any justice in
London for a widow woman."

"Nay, cousin, you have heard some strange tale," said Master Headley,
who, much as he would have dreaded the attack beforehand, faced it the
more calmly and manfully because the accusation was so outrageous.

"Ay, so I told her," began her son-in-law, "but she hath been neither to
have nor to hold since the--"

"And how should I be to have or to hold by a nincompoop like thee," she
said, turning round on him, "that would have me sit down and be content
forsooth, when mine only son is kidnapped to be sold to the Turks or to
work in the galleys, for aught I know."

"Mistress!" here Master Hope's voice came in, "I would counsel you to
speak less loud, and hear before you accuse. We of the City of London
know Master Alderman Headley too well to hear him railed against."

"Ah! you're all of a piece," she began; but by this time Master Tiptoff
had managed at least to get her into the hall, and had exchanged words
enough with the alderman to assure himself that there was an
explanation, nay, that there was a letter from Giles himself. This the
indignant mother presently was made to understand--and as the alderman
had borrowed the letter in order to copy it for her, it was given to
her. She could not read, and would trust no one but her son-in-law to
read it to her. "Yea, you have it very pat," she said, "but how am I to
be assured 'tis not all writ here to hoodwink a poor woman like me."

"'Tis Giles's hand," averred Tiptoff.

"And if you will," added the alderman, with wonderful patience, "to-
morrow you may speak with the youth who received it. Come, sit down and
sup with us, and then you shall learn from Smallbones how this mischance
befel, all from my sending two young heads together, and one who, though
a good fellow, could not hold all in rule."

"Ay--you've your reasons for anything," she muttered, but being both
weary and hungry, she consented to eat and drink, while Tiptoff, who was
evidently ashamed of her violence, and anxious to excuse it, managed to
explain that a report had been picked up at Romsey, by a bare-footed
friar from Salisbury, that young Giles Headley had been seen at Ghent by
one of the servants of a wool merchant, riding with a troop of