so I will forbear.

"Well!" saith _Edith_, "one thing will I say, your leave granted,
_Father_: and that is, I am fain you shall not read my part till it be
done. I would lief be at my wisest on the last page."

"Dear heart! I look to be wise on no page," cries _Milly_.

"Nay," said I, "I would trust to be wise on all."

"There spake our _Nell_!" cries _Milly_. "I could swear it were she,
though mine eyes were shut close."

"This book doth somewhat divert me, _Joyce_," quoth _Father_, looking at
her. "Here be three writers, of whom one shall be wise on each page,
and one on none, and one on the last only. I reckon it shall be
pleasant reading."

"And I reckon," saith Aunt _Joyce_, "they shall be reasonable true to
themselves an' it be thus."

"And I," saith _Milly_, "that my pages shall be the pleasantest of any."

"_Ergo_," quoth _Father_, "wisdom is displeasant matter. So it is,
_Milly_,--to unwise folks."

"Then, _Father_, of a surety my chronicling shall ill please you," saith
she, a-laughing.

_Father_ arose, and laid his hand upon _Milly's_ head as he passed by
her.

"The wise can love the unwise, my maid," saith he. "How could the only
wise God love any one of us else?"

SELWICK HALL, OCTOBER YE II.
_Milly_ saith, and _Edith_ likewise, that I must needs set down somewhat
touching all us,--who we be, and how many, and our names, and such like.
Truly, it seemeth me somewhat lost labour, if none but ourselves are to
read the same. But as _Milly_ will have it the Queen's Majesty and all
her Council shall be highly diverted thereby (though little, as
methinks, they should care to know of us), I reckon, to please these my
sisters, I must needs do their bidding.

We therefore, that dwell in _Selwick_ Hall, be Sir _Aubrey Louvaine_,
the owner thereof (that is _Father_), and Dame _Lettice_ his wife, and
us their daughters, _Helen, Milisent_, and _Editha_. Moreover, there is
Aunt _Joyce Morrell_, that dwelleth in _Oxfordshire_, at _Minster
Lovel_, but doth once every five year tarry six months with us, and we
with her the like: so that we see each the other once in every two or
three years. 'Tis but a week Aunt _Joyce_ hath been hither, so all the
six months be to run. And here I should note she is not truly our aunt,
but _Father's_ cousin, her mother being sister unto his mother: but
_Father_ had never no brother nor sister, and was bred up along, with