his right hand sat a sturdy middle-aged burgher, whose conduct up
to date had been cynical. He had never budged nor even rested his knife
at all this fracas. He now turned on Gerard and inquired haughtily
whether he really thought that "grimaciere" was afraid of a mouse.

"Ay. She screamed hearty."

"Where is the coquette that cannot scream to the life? These she
tavern-keepers do still ape the nobles. Some princess or duchess hath
lain here a night, that was honestly afeard of a mouse, having been
brought up to it. And this ape hath seen her, and said, 'I will start
at a mouse, and make a coil,' She has no more right to start at a mouse
than to wear that fur on her bosom, and that velvet on her monkey's
head. I am of the town, young man, and have known the mijauree all her
life, and I mind when she was no more afeard of a mouse than she is of
a man." He added that she was fast emptying the inn with these
"singeries." "All the world is so sick of her hands, that her very
kinsfolk will not venture themselves anigh them." He concluded with
something like a sigh, "The 'Tete d'Or' was a thriving hostelry under my
old chum her good father; but she is digging its grave tooth and nail.'

"Tooth and nail? good! a right merry conceit and a true," said Gerard.
But the right merry conceit was an inadvertence as pure as snow, and
the stout burgher went to his grave and never knew what he had done:
for just then attention was attracted by Denys returning pompously. He
inspected the apartment minutely, and with a high official air: he also
looked solemnly under the table; and during the whole inquisition a
white hand was placed conspicuously on the edge of the open door, and
a tremulous voice inquired behind it whether the horrid thing was quite
gone.

"The enemy has retreated, bag and baggage," said Denys: and handed in
the trembling fair, who, sitting down, apologized to her guests for
her foolish fears, with so much earnestness, grace, and seeming
self-contempt, that, but for a sour grin on his neighbour's face, Gerard
would have been taken in as all the other strangers were. Dinner ended,
the young landlady begged an Augustine friar at her right hand to say
grace. He delivered a longish one. The moment he began, she clapped her
white hands piously together, and held them up joined for mortals to
admire; 'tis an excellent pose for taper white fingers: and cast her
eyes upward towards heaven, and felt as thankful to it as a magp