d well-fashioned of body, nowise big, but slender, of dark red hair
and brown eyes somewhat small.

"Now, she said to me, 'I have looked for thee a while; now thou art
come, thou shalt tell me what thou needest, and thy needs will I
fulfil. Yet needs must thou do a thing for me in return, and maybe
thou wilt deem it a great thing. Yet whereas thou has struck a bargain
before thou camest hither, if I undo that for thee, the bargain with me
may be nought so burdensome. How sayest thou?'

"Well, I saw now that I was in the trap, for ill had it been in those
days had Clement come to know that I had done amiss; for he was a
jealous lover, and a violent man."

Clement smiled hereat, but said nought, and Katherine went on: "Trap or
no trap, if I were eager before, I was over-eager now; so when she bade
me swear to do her will, I swore it without tarrying.

"Then she said: 'Sit down before me, and I will teach thee wisdom.'
What did she teach me? say ye. Well, if I told you belike ye would be
none the wiser; but so much she told me, that my heart swelled with joy
of the wisdom which I garnered. Say thou, Clement, if I have been the
worser woman to thee, or thy friends, or mine."

"Nay, goodwife," said Clement, "I have nought against thee."

Katherine laughed and went on:

"At last the Wise Woman said, 'Now that thou hast of me all that may
avail thee, comes the other part of our bargain, wherein I shall take
and thou shalt give.'

"Quoth I, 'That is but fair, and thou shalt find me true to thee.' She
said, 'If thou be not, I shall know it, and shall amend it in such wise
that it shall cost thee much.'

"Then she looked on me long and keenly, and said afterward: 'Forsooth I
should forbear laying this charge upon thee if I did not deem that thou
wouldst be no less than true. But now I will try it, whereas I deem
that the days of my life henceforward shall not be many; and many days
would it take me to find a woman as little foolish as thee and as
little false, and thereto as fairly fashioned.'

"Therewith she put her hand to her neck, and took thence the self-same
pair of beads which I gave to thee, dear gossip, and which (praise be
to All Hallows!) thou hast borne ever since; and she said: 'Now
hearken! Thou shalt take this pair of beads, and do with them as I bid
thee. Swear again thereto.' So I swore by All Angels; and she said
again: 'This pair of beads shall one day lead a man unto the Well at
the Worl