ng her some. There'll be sauce with the next."

That there would be sauce--of one species--with every course served to
her in that house, Belasez was beginning to feel no doubt. Yet however
Levina chose to behave to her, the young Jewess maintained her own
dignity. She quietly put aside the plate of ham, and, cutting off the
mouldy pieces, ate the dry bread without complaint Belasez's kindly and
generous nature was determined that the Countess, who had been so much
kinder to her than at that time Christians usually were to Jews, should
hear no murmuring word from her unless it came to actual starvation.

Levina's sauce presented itself unmistakably with the second course,
which proved to be a piece of apple-pie, swimming in the strongest
vinegar. Though it must have set her teeth on edge, Belasez consumed
the pie in silence, avoiding the vinegar so far as she could, and
entertained while she did so by Levina's assurances that it delighted
her to see how completely Belasez enjoyed it.

The third article, according to Levina, was cheese: but the first
mouthful was enough to convince the persecuted Jewess that soft soap
would have been a more correct epithet. She quietly let it alone.

"_Ha, chetife_! I am sadly in fear that my sweetest damsel does not
like our Suffolk cheese?" said Levina in a most doleful tone.

"Is it manufactured in this county?" asked Belasez very coolly; for, in
1234, all soaps were of foreign importation. "I thought it tasted more
like the French make."

Levina vanished down the stairs, but her suppressed laughter was quite
audible. She came up again with two more plates, and informed Belasez
that they constituted the last course. One of them was filled with
chicken-bones, picked exceedingly clean: the other with a piece of sweet
cake, over which had been poured some very hot saline compound which by
no means harmonised with the cake, but set Belasez's throat on fire.
She managed, however, to eat it, thinking that she would get little food
of any kind if she did not: and Levina departed with the plates,
remarking that it had done her good to see the excellent meal which
Belasez had made. It was a relief to the girl to be left alone: for
solitude had no terrors for her, and Levina was certainly not an
enjoyable companion. After half-an-hour's quiet, Margaret and Eva
entered the ante-chamber.

"Hast thou dined, Belasez?" asked Margaret, kindly.

"I thank my damsel, yes."

"Did Lev