ring him the full sight of her bold cheeks and shameless eyes.

"Are you Nanette, wife of this philosopher?" asked the duke's fool,
approaching, and indicating the miserable scamp who clung near the
doorway as one undecided whether to enter or run away.

"Yes; I am Nanette, his true and lawful spouse," she answered with a
shrill laugh. "Wilt come to me, true-love?" she called out to her
apprehensive yoke-mate.

"Nay; I'll go out in the air a while," hurriedly replied the
vagabond-scholar, and quickly vanished.

"Ah, how he loves me!" she continued.

"So much he prefers a cony-burrow to his own fireside," said the fool
dryly.

"A hole i' the earth is too good for such a scurvy fellow," she
retorted. "But what would you here, fool? A song, a jest, a dance?
Or have you come to learn a new story, or ballad, for the lordlings you
must entertain?" Unabashed, she approached a step nearer.

"Your stories, mistress, would be unsuited for the court, and your
ballads best unsung," he retorted. "I came, not to sharpen my wits,
but to learn from whom the thief-friar got the small piece of silver
you gave your consort, and, also, to procure a horse."

Her brazen eyes wavered. "A horse and a fool flying," she muttered.
"Even what the cards showed. The fool seeking the duke!" A puzzled
look crossed her face. "But the duke is here?" she continued to
herself. "A strange riddle! All the signs show devilment, but what it
is--"

"Good Nanette," interrupted the jester, satirically, "I have no time
for spells or incantation."

"How dared you come here," she said, hoarsely, "after--"

"After your mate proved but an indifferent servant of yours?" he
concluded, meeting her sullen gaze with one so stern and inflexible
that before it her eyes fell.

"Do you not know," she said, endeavoring to maintain a hardened front,
"I have but to say the word, and all these friends of mine would tear
you to pieces? What would you do, my pretty fellows, an I ask you?"
she cried out, her voice rising audaciously. "Would you suffer this
duke's jester to stand against me?"

Glances of suspicion and animosity shot from a score of eyes; fists
were half-clenched; knives appeared in a trice from the concealment of
rags, and a low murmur arose from the gathering. Even the imbecile
morio, nature's trembling coward, became suddenly valiant, and, with
huge frame uplifted, seemed about to spring savagely upon the fool. An
expression of disgu