ense.

Cromwell said:

'Tush; I must have the best of these Flemish furnishings.'

He signed to Viridus to send for Katharine Howard, and went on talking
with Sadler about the furnishing of his house in the Austin Friars. He
had his agents all over Flanders watching the noted masters of the
crafts to see what notable pieces they might turn out; for he loved
fine carvings, noble hangings, great worked chests and other signs of
wealth, and the money was never thrown away, for the wood and the
stuffs and the gold thread remained so long as you kept the moth and
the woodlouse from them. To the King too he gave presents every day.

Katharine entered by a door from a corridor at which he had not
expected her. She wore a great head-dress of net like the Queen's and
her dress was in no disarray, neither were her cheeks flushed by
anything more than apprehension. She said that she had been shown
that way by a large gentleman with a great beard. She would not bring
herself to mention the name of Throckmorton, so much she detested him.

Cromwell answered with a benevolent smile, 'Aye, Throckmorton had ever
an eye for beauty. Otherwise you had come scurvily out of that wash.'

He twisted his mouth up as if he were mocking her, and asked her
suddenly how the Lady Mary corresponded with her cousin the Emperor,
for it was certain she had a means of writing to him?

Katharine flushed all over her face with relief and her heart stilled
itself a little. Here at least there was no talk of the Tower at once
for her, because she had written a letter to Bishop Gardiner. She
answered that that day for the first time she had been in the Lady
Mary's service.

He smiled benevolently still, and holding out a hand in a little
warning gesture and with an air of pleasant reasonableness, said that
she must earn her bread like other folks in his Highness' service.

'Why,' she answered, 'I have been marvellous ill, but I shall be more
diligent in serving my mistress.'

He marked a distinction, pointing a fat finger at her heart-place. In
the serving of her mistress she should do not enough work to pay for
bodkins nor for sewing silk, since the Lady Mary asked nothing of her
maids, neither their attendance, their converse, nor yet their
needlework. Such a place asked nothing of one so fortunate as to fill
it. To atone for it the service of the King demanded her labours.

'Why,' she said again, 'if I must spy in those parts it is a great
pit