Master Courage had just returned carrying a large dish heaped up with
delicious looking pasties fresh from the oven, brown and crisp with
butter, and ornamented with sprigs of burrage which made them appear
exceedingly tempting.

Charity took the dish from the lad and heavy as it was, she carried it
to the table and placed it right in the very center of it. She
rearranged the sprigs of burrage, made a fresh disposition of the
baskets of fruit, whilst both the men watched her open-mouthed, agape at
so much loveliness and grace.

"And," she added significantly, looking with ill-concealed covetousness
at the succulent pasties, "where there's at least one dog or cat about
the place."

"I know not, mistress," said Hymn-of-Praise, "that thou wast over-fond
of domestic pets ... 'Tis sinful to ..."

"La! Master Busy, you ... hem ... thou mistakest my meaning. I have no
love for such creatures--but without so much as a kitten about the
house, prithee how am I to account to my mistress for the pasties and
... and comfits ... not to speak of breakages."

"There is always Master Courage," suggested Hymn-of-Praise, with a
movement of the left eyelid which in the case of any one less saintly
might have been described as a sly wink.

"That there is not," interrupted the lad decisively; "my stomach rebels
against comfits, and sack-posset could never be laid to my door."

"I give thee assurance, Master Busy," concluded the young girl, "that
the county of Kent no longer suits my constitution. 'Tis London for me,
and thither will I go next year."

"'Tis a den of wickedness," commented Busy sententiously, "in spite of
my Lord Protector, who of a truth doth turn his back on the Saints and
hath even allowed the great George Fox and some of the Friends to
languish in prison, whilst profligacy holds undisputed sway. Master
Courage, meseems those mugs need washing a second time," he added, with
sudden irrelevance. "Take them to the kitchen, and do not let me set
eyes on thee until they shine like pieces of new silver."

Master Courage would have either resisted the order altogether, or at
any rate argued the point of the cleanliness of the mugs, had he dared;
but the saintly man possessed on occasions a heavy hand, and he also
wore boots which had very hard toes, and the lad realized from the
peremptory look in the butler's eyes that this was an occasion when both
hand and boot would serve to emphasize Master Busy's orders with
unp