atharine said hurriedly, between her prayers:

'What will you of me? No man cometh to a woman without seeking
something from her.'

'Why, I would have you look favourably upon me,' he answered. 'I am a
goodly man.'

'I am meat for your masters,' she answered with bitter contempt. 'You
have the blood of my kin on your hands.'

He sighed, half mockingly.

'If you will not give me your favours,' he said in a low, laughing
voice, 'I would have you remember me according as my aid is of
advantage to you.'

'God help you,' she said; 'I believe now that you have it in mind to
betray your master.'

'I am a man that can be very helpful,' he answered, with his laughing
assurance that had always in it the ring of a sneer. 'Tell Bishop
Gardiner again, that the hour approaches to strike if these cowards
will ever strike.'

Katharine felt her pulses beat more slowly.

'Sir,' she said, 'I tell you very plainly that I will not work for the
advancement of the Bishop of Winchester. He turned me loose upon the
street to-night after I had served him, with neither guard to my feet
nor bit to my mouth. If my side goes up, he may go with it, but I love
him not.'

'Why, then, devise with the Duke of Norfolk,' he answered after a
pause. 'Gardiner is a black rogue and your uncle a yellow craven; but
bid them join hands till the time comes for them to cut each other's
throats.'

'You are a foul dog to talk thus of noblemen,' she said.

He answered:

'Oh, la! You have little to thank your uncle for. What do you want?
Will you play for your own hand? Or will you partner those two against
the other?'

'I will never partner with a spy and a villain,' she cried hotly.

He cried lightly:

'Ohe, Goosetherumfoodle! You will say differently before long. If you
will fight in a fight you must have tools. Now you have none, and your
situation is very parlous.'

'I stand on my legs, and no man can touch me,' she said hotly.

'But two men can hang you to-morrow,' he answered. 'One man you know;
the other is the Sieur Gardiner. Cromwell hath contrived that you
should write a treasonable letter; Gardiner holdeth that letter's
self.'

Katharine braved her own sudden fears with:

'Men are not such villains.'

'They are as occasion makes them,' he answered, with his voice of a
philosopher. 'What manner of men these times breed you should know if
you be not a fool. It is very certain that Gardiner will hang you,
with that letter, if you