Margery, who had looked for
the great man from London with girlish curiosity, suddenly felt an
unconquerable and causeless dislike to him swell up in her heart, a
something which she could neither define nor account for, that made her
wish to avoid sitting near him, and turn her eyes away whenever his were
directed towards her.

Sir Geoffrey presented his wife and daughter to Lord Marnell, and Sir
Ralph came forward with a cordial greeting; after which they took their
seats at table, for Richard Pynson was already bringing in the "farsure
of hare," and Mistress Katherine following with the pottage. The
occupants of the high table, on the dais, consisted of Sir Geoffrey and
Dame Lovell, Lord Marnell, Sir Ralph Marston, Margery, Richard Pynson,
Mistress Katherine, and Friar Andrew Rous, Sir Geoffrey's chaplain. The
maids sat at the second table, and the farm-servants at a third, lower
down the hall. Sir Ralph, as usual, was full of fun, and spared nobody,
keeping the whole table in a roar of laughter, excepting Lord Marnell,
who neither laughed at his cousin's jokes, nor offered any observations
of his own, being wholly occupied with the discussion of the various
dishes as they were presented to him, and consuming, according to the
joint testimony of Dame Lovell and Friar Andrew after the feast, "enough
to last seven men for a week." When dinner was over, and "the tables
lifted," the company gathered round the fire, and proceeded to make
themselves comfortable. Sir Ralph sang songs, and told funny anecdotes,
and cracked jokes with the young people; while Lord Marnell, in
conversation with Sir Geoffrey, showed that the promise of neither half
of his face was entirely unfulfilled, by proving himself a shrewd
observer, and not a bad talker. In the midst of this conversation, Sir
Ralph, turning round to Sir Geoffrey, inquired if he had heard anything
of a certain sermon that had been preached the day before at Bostock
Church.

"I heard of it," answered he, "but I heard it not. Some of mine,
methinks, heard the same. Madge, wentest not thou thereto?"

"Ay, good father, I went with Master Pynson."

"Ah!" said Sir Ralph. "I went not, for the which I now grieve, the more
as my good cousin telleth me that Master Sastre is accounted a great one
by some--but these seem not of the best."

"Misconceive me not, fair cousin," said Lord Marnell. "It is only the
Lollards that think well of the man, and thou wottest that Ho