rto Perrote had been an extremely silent person. Not one word
unnecessary to the work in hand had she ever uttered, since those few on
Amphillis's first arrival. It was therefore with some little surprise
that the girl heard her voice, as she stood that evening brushing her
hair before the mirror.

"Amphillis, who chose you to come hither?"

"Truly, Mistress, that wis I not. Only, first of all, Mistress Chaucer,
of the Savoy Palace, looked me o'er to see if I should be meet for
taking into account, and then came a lady thence, and asked at me divers
questions, and judged that I should serve; but who she was I knew not.
She bade me be well ware that I gat me in no entanglements of no sort,"
said Amphillis, laughing a little; "but in good sooth, I see here
nothing to entangle me in."

"She gave thee good counsel therein. There be tangles of divers sorts,
my maid, and those which cut the tightest be not alway the worst. Thou
mayest tangle thy feet of soft wool, or rich silk, no less than of rough
cord. Ah me! there be tangles here, Amphillis, and hard to undo. There
were skilwise fingers to their tying--hard fingers, that thought only to
pull them tight, and harried them little touching the trouble of such as
should be thus tethered. And there be knots that no man can undo--only
God. Why tarry the wheels of His chariot?"

Amphillis turned round from the mirror.

"Mistress Perrote, may I ask a thing at you?"

"Ask, my maid."

"My Lady answered me not; will you? What hath our Lady done to be thus
shut close in prison?"

"_She_ done?" was the answer, with a piteous intonation. Perrote looked
earnestly into the girl's face. "Amphillis, canst thou keep a secret?"

"If I know myself, I can well."

"Wilt thou so do, for the love of God and thy Lady? It should harm her,
if men knew thou wist it. And, God wot, she hath harm enough."

"I will never speak word, Mistress Perrote, to any other than you,
without you bid me, or grant me leave."

"So shall thou do well. Guess, Amphillis, who is it that keepeth this
poor lady in such durance."

"Nay, that I cannot, without it be our Lord the King."

"He, surely; yet is he but the gaoler. There is another beyond him, at
whose earnest entreaty, and for whose pleasure he so doth. Who is it,
thinkest?"

"It seemeth me, Mistress, looking to what you say, this poor lady must
needs have some enemy," said Amphillis.

"Amphillis, that worst enemy, the enemy that