Now, whether was this a great thing or a small?"

"I have no doubt to say, a great."

"Maybe, Mistress Clare, when you and I shall stand--as I pray God we
may!--among the sheep at the right hand of Christ our Saviour,--when the
books be opened, and the dead judged according to that which is written
of them,--He may pick out some little petty deed (to our eyes), and may
say thereof, This was a great thing in My sight. And it may be, too,
that the deeds we counted great He shall pass by without any mention.
Dear heart, let us do the small deeds to our utmost, and the great are
sure to follow. `He that is faithful in that which is least, is
faithful also in much.' And you know what He saith touching that poor
cup of cold water, which assuredly is but a right small thing to give.
Think you, if the Queen's Highness were passing here but now, and should
drop her glove, and you picked up the same and offered it to Her
Grace,--should you e'er forget it? I trow not. Yet what a petty
matter--to pick up a dropped glove! `Ah, but,' say you, `It was the
Queen's glove--that wrought the difference.' Verily so. Then set the
like gilding upon your petty deeds. It is the King's work. You have
wrought for the King. Your guerdon is His smile--is it not enough?--and
your home shall be within His house for ever."

"Ay!" said Clare, drawing a long sigh--not of care: "it is enough,
Mistress Eunice."

"And He hath no lack of our work," added Eunice softly. "It is _given_
to us to do, like as it was given unto Peter and John to suffer.
Methinks he were neither a good child nor a thankful, that should refuse
to stretch forth hand for his Father's gift."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1. I have not been able to ascertain the true date of Underhill's
death, but he was living on the 6th of March 1568. (Rot. Pat., 10
Elizabeth, Part Two.)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

GENTLEMAN JACK.

"He is transformed, And grown a gallant of the last edition."

_Massinger_.

Jack's letters from London were exuberant. He was delighted with his
new phase of existence. He had made some most advantageous friendships,
and was in hopes of obtaining a monopoly, which would bring him in about
a hundred a year. In the meantime, he begged that his father would
remember that life at Court was a very costly affair; and perhaps he
would be so good as to send him a little more money. Half-a-dozen
let