me? Why is he not here? Where have ye left him? Oh tell me! prithee,
prithee, prithee, tell me!"

"Ay, ay, but not here. Oh, ye are all curiosity now, mesdames, eh? Lass,
I have been three months a-foot travelling all Holland to find ye,
and here you are. Oh, be joyful!" and he flung his cap in the air, and
seizing both her hands kissed them ardently. "Ah, my pretty she-comrade,
I have found thee at last. I knew I should. Shall be flouted no more.
I'll twist your necks at the first word, ye little trollops. And I have
got fifteen gold angels left for thee, and our Gerard will soon be here.
Shalt wet thy purple eyes no more."

But the fair eyes were wet even now, looking kindly and gratefully at
the friend that had dropped among her foes as if from heaven; Gerard's
comrade. "Prithee come home with me good, kind Denys. I cannot speak of
him before these." They went off together, followed by a chorus. "She
has gotten a man. She has gotten a man at last. Boo! boo! boo!"

Margaret quickened her steps; but Denys took down his crossbow and
pretended to shoot them all dead: they fled quadrivious, shrieking.

CHAPTER LI

The reader already knows how much these two had to tell one another.
It was a sweet yet bitter day for Margaret, since it brought her a true
friend, and ill news; for now first she learned that Gerard was all
alone in that strange land. She could not think with Denys that he would
come home; indeed he would have arrived before this.

Denys was a balm. He called her his she-comrade, and was always cheering
her up with his formula and hilarities, and she petted him and made
much of him, and feebly hectored it over him as well as over Martin, and
would not let him eat a single meal out of her house, and forbade him to
use naughty words. "It spoils you, Denys. Good lack, to hear such ugly
words come forth so comely a head: forbear, or I shall be angry: so be
civil." Whereupon Denys was upon his good behaviour, and ludicrous the
struggle between his native politeness and his acquired ruffianism. And
as it never rains but it pours, other persons now solicited Margaret's
friendship. She had written to Margaret Van Eyck a humble letter telling
her she knew she was no longer the favourite she had been, and would
keep her distance; but could not forget her benefactress's past
kindness. She then told her briefly how many ways she had battled for a
living, and in conclusion, begged earnestly that her residence migh