d tried impatiently to think where, in this
pickle, his feet had landed him. His wife turned once more to place
flagons in the armoury.

'Woman,' he said at last, in a tone half of majesty, half of appeal,
'see ye not how weighty it is that I bide here?'

'Husband,' she answered with her tranquil nonchalance, 'see ye not
how weighty it is that ye waste here no more days?'

'But very well you know,' and he stretched out to her a thin hand,
'that here be two embassies of mystery: you have had, these three
days, the Cleves envoy in the house. You have seen that the Duke of
Norfolk comes here as ambassador.'

She took a stool and sat near his feet to listen to him.

'Now,' he began again, 'if I be in truth a spy for Thomas Cromwell,
Lord Privy Seal, where can I spy better for him than here? For the
Cleves people are befriended with Privy Seal; then why come they to
France, where bide only Privy Seal's enemies? Now Norfolk is the
chiefest enemy of Privy Seal; then wherefore cometh Norfolk to this
land, where abide only these foes of Privy Seal?'

She set her elbows on her knees and her knuckles below her chin, and
gazed up at him like a child.

'Tell me, husband,' she said; 'be ye a true spy for Thomas Cromwell?'

He glanced round him with terror--but no man stood nearer than the
meat boards across the kitchen, so far out of earshot that they could
not hear feet upon the bricks.

'Nay, ye may tell me the very truth of the very truth,' she said.
'These be false days--but my kitchen gear is thine, and nothing doth
so bind folks together.'

'But other listeners--' he said.

'Hosts and hostesses are listeners,' she answered. ''Tis their trade.
And their trade it is, too, to fend from them all other listeners.
Here you may speak. Tell me then, if I may serve you, very truly
whether ye be a true spy for Thomas Cromwell or against him.'

Her round face, beneath the great white hood, had a childish
earnestness.

'Why, you are a fair doxy,' he said. He hung his head for some more
minutes, then he spoke again.

'It is a folly to speak of me as Privy Seal's spy, though I have so
spoken of myself. For why? It gaineth me worship, maketh men to fear
me and women to be dazzled by my power. But in truth, I have little
power.'

'That is the very truth?' she asked.

He nodded nonchalantly and waited again to find very clear words for
her understanding.

'But, though it be true that I am no spy of Cromwell's, true it is