g herself at my head."

"I would she had been a brickbat then, to have broken it, for thy
impertinence and conceit," said the steward.

"Well, but do but hearken. The next morning--that is, this very blessed
morning--I thought of going to lodge a buck in the park, judging a bit
of venison might be wanted in the larder, after yesterday's wassail;
and, as I passed under the nursery window, I did but just look up to see
what madam governante was about; and so I saw her, through the
casement, whip on her hood and scarf as soon as she had a glimpse of me.
Immediately after I saw the still-room door open, and made sure she was
coming through the garden, and so over the breach and down to the park;
and so, thought I, 'Aha, Mistress Deb, if you are so ready to dance
after my pipe and tabor, I will give you a couranto before you shall
come up with me.' And so I went down Ivy-tod Dingle, where the copse is
tangled, and the ground swampy, and round by Haxley-bottom, thinking all
the while she was following, and laughing in my sleeve at the round I
was giving her."

"You deserved to be ducked for it," said Whitaker, "for a weather-headed
puppy; but what is all this Jack-a-lantern story to Bridgenorth?"

"Why, it was all along of he, man," continued Lance, "that is, of
Bridgenorth, that she did not follow me--Gad, I first walked slow, and
then stopped, and then turned back a little, and then began to wonder
what she had made of herself, and to think I had borne myself something
like a jackass in the matter."

"That I deny," said Whitaker, "never jackass but would have borne him
better--but go on."

"Why, turning my face towards the Castle, I went back as if I had my
nose bleeding, when just by the Copely thorn, which stands, you know, a
flight-short from the postern-gate, I saw Madam Deb in close conference
with the enemy."

"What enemy?" said the steward.

"What enemy! why, who but Bridgenorth? They kept out of sight, and among
the copse; but, thought I, it is hard if I cannot stalk you, that have
stalked so many bucks. If so, I had better give my shafts to be pudding
pins. So I cast round the thicket, to watch their waters; and may I
never bend crossbow again, if I did not see him give her gold, and
squeeze her by the hand!"

"And was that all you saw pass between them?" said the steward.

"Faith, and it was enough to dismount me from my hobby," said Lance.
"What! when I thought I had the prettiest girl in the Castle d