aid Peter, who liked not my mirth. "I shall
wed her anon; and till then I would have her kept clear of your
company."

"Pass the mug, Peter Stoupe, and cease your funning. The day sweet
Jeannette weds with you, I will saddle the horse shall carry you to
church. Till then, if I catch so much as her name on your foul lips, I
will drop you, feet uppermost, in the mud of Fleet Ditch. So make a
bargain of it."

He turned green at that, for he guessed I meant what I said.

"What?" began he; "you who ruined my master, and robbed--"

Here I sprang to my feet, and he stopped short.

"Robbed whom?" demanded I.

"Enough," said he, motioning me to sit down. "I resolved, when you
came, to hold no parley with you, and I repent me I have done so.
Henceforth, Humphrey Dexter, we are strangers."

"Be what you will," said I, "only keep a civil tongue in your head."

And I went up to bed.

Now this was yet another trial to Peter, who had been used to lie alone
while I was absent, and now loathed that I should rob him thus of half
his kicking room. But he durst say naught. Only he lay at the far
edge, and, instead of saying his prayers, cursed me between his teeth.

It was in my heart to pity Peter Stoupe that night. For it was plain I
had come in an evil hour for him. Master Walgrave had been hoodwinked
by his smooth manners and lying tongue, and was fain to believe he owed
him more for the duty he had done while his master was in gaol than in
truth he did. Nor durst my mistress thwart him over much for the same
cause. As for Jeannette--if she humoured him and endured his
civilities, 'twas because she was ever kind. So all was going well with
Peter when I chanced home, who knew him for his worth and promised to
spoil his sport. Little wonder, then, if he hated to see me, and kept
at the far edge of the bed.

However, I had more to think of than him; and, finding him deaf, even
when I tried to be civil, I busied myself with other thoughts, and fell
asleep, to dream a jumbled dream of Ludar, and Jeannette, and the
captain of the _Misericorde_.

I remember I dreamed that Ludar and Jeannette were keeping the watch on
deck while I slept below; and that my hour being come, the captain had
come down to fetch me, and was standing over me; when I awoke suddenly,
and, in the dim moonlight, saw a real figure at the bedside. It was
Peter Stoupe, and, though I could scarce see his face, I knew he was
glowering on me, white