d therewith I drew a pebble over him with my foot, that the sight o'
his misfortune should not disturb her tender heart.

"How if I were to crush you 'neath my heel, Master Butter?" quoth she at
last, having peered about for the sight she dreaded, and, not seeing it,
returning to her discourse. "How wouldst thou like that, excellent
Master Butter?" But somehow, as I looked at her foot, my mouth, for all
I could do, went into a smile. For though she was as fine a maiden as
any in all Warwickshire, her foot, methinks, was of so dainty a make
'twould scarce have dealt death to a rose.

"But truly, my lady," continued I, seeing that she was making up a face
at me, "thou knowest I've naught in common with ghosts."

"Ay," quoth she. "And thou knowest the like of me. But"--and here stops
she, with the slyest tip of her frowzed curls towards the house--"thou
knowest also this, Butter, that his lordship, my brother, thinks as doth
Marian, thy wife, and that therein we four cannot agree."

So I look at my hoe-handle, and say I, "My lady, it is known to me."

"Well, now, Butter," she goes on, "thou most wise, most excellent, most
cunning, most delectable of Butters, I have concocted a plan. I' fecks,
Butter" (for my lady, like her Majesty the Queen, was somewhat given to
swearing, though more modest oaths, as should become a subject)--"I'
fecks, Butter," saith she, "'tis a most lustick plot. But I would not
thy mome heard us;" and with that she makes me send away Joe, the
under-gardener. He being gone, she whispers in my ear how she hath
plotted to fright his lordship and Marian into very convulsions of
further conviction, by appearing to them at the door o' the blue room in
her night-gown, with a taper in her hand and her face chalked. What she
desired o' me was, that I should come to the blue room with her, and
there remain while she played off this pretty fantasy on my lord and
Marian.

To be truthful in these my last days o' earth, I liked not my proffered
office o'er-well. Howbeit, that night did I do the bidding o' my young
mistress, and--loath am I to speak of it, even at this late day--'twas
the cause of my young master's leaving his home and going to bide in
foreign countries.

Ah, bitter tears did his sister weep, and with mine own eyes I saw her,
on the day he set forth, cling to his neck, and when he shook her
thence, hang about his loins, and when at last he pushed her to the
ground, she laid her hands about hi