be so good as listen to me."

"So I do, with both mine ears, I do ensure you," saith he, laughing.

"Now shall we meet with our demerits!" saith _Father_. "I pity thee not
o'er much, _Robin_, for thou hast pulled it on thine own head."

"My head will stand it," quoth Sir _Robert_. "Now then, Mistress
_Joyce_, prithee go to."

Then quoth she, standing afore him--"I know well you can find me places
diverse where _Paul_ did bid wives that they should obey their husbands;
and therein hold I with _Paul_. But I do defy you in this company to
find me so much as one place wherein he biddeth women to obey men. And
as for teaching, in his Epistle unto _Titus_, he plainly commandeth that
the aged women shall teach the young ones. Moreover, I pray you, had
not _Philip_ the evangelist four virgin daughters, which did prophesy--
to wit, preach? And did not _Priscilla_, no whit less than _Aquila_,
instruct _Apollos_?"

"Mistress _Joyce_, the Queen's Bench lost an eloquent advocate in you."

"That's a man all over!" quoth Aunt _Joyce_, with a little stamp of her
foot. "When he cannot answer a woman's reasoning, trust him to pay her
a compliment, and reckon that shall serve her turn, poor fool, a deal
better than the other."

Sir _Robert_ laughed as though he were rarely diverted.

"_Dulcie_ may do your bidding an' she list," saith Aunt _Joyce_, "but
trust me, so shall not I."

"Mistress _Joyce_, therein will I trust you as fully as may be," saith
he, yet laughing. "Yet, I pray you, satisfy my curious fantasy, and
tell me wherein you count _Paul_ a friend to the women?"

"By reason that he told them plainly they were happier unwed," saith
Aunt _Joyce_: "and find me an other man that so reckoneth. Mark you, he
saith not better, nor holier, nor wiser; but happier. That is it which
most men will deny."

"Doth it not in any wise depend on the woman?" saith Sir _Robert_, with
a comical set of his lips. "It depends on the man, a sight more," saith
she.

"But, my mistress, bethink you of the saw--`A man is what a woman makes
him.'"

"Oh, is he so?" crieth Aunt _Joyce_, in scorn. "She's a deal more what
he makes her. `A good _Jack_, a good _Gill_!' Saws cut two ways, Sir
_Robert_."

"Six of one, and half-a-dozen of the other," saith _Father_.

"_Lettice_, come thou and aid me," saith Aunt _Joyce_. "Here be two men
set on one poor woman."

"Nay, I am under obedience, _Joyce_," saith _Mother_, laughing.

"Fors