ently there was a noise behind them;
and they were aware of the short young lady, with her finger on her lips.

"Saints!" she cried, "but what a noise ye keep! Can ye not speak in
compass? And now, Joanna, my fair maid of the woods, what will ye give
your gossip for bringing you your sweetheart?"

Joanna ran to her, by way of answer, and embraced her fierily.

"And you, sir," added the young lady, "what do ye give me?"

"Madam," said Dick, "I would fain offer to pay you in the same money."

"Come, then," said the lady, "it is permitted you."

But Dick, blushing like a peony, only kissed her hand.

"What ails ye at my face, fair sir?" she inquired, curtseying to the very
ground; and then, when Dick had at length and most tepidly embraced her,
"Joanna," she added, "your sweetheart is very backward under your eyes;
but I warrant you, when first we met he was more ready. I am all black
and blue, wench; trust me never, if I be not black and blue! And now,"
she continued, "have ye said your sayings? for I must speedily dismiss
the paladin."

But at this they both cried out that they had said nothing, that the
night was still very young, and that they would not be separated so
early.

"And supper?" asked the young lady. "Must we not go down to supper?"

"Nay, to be sure!" cried Joan. "I had forgotten."

"Hide me, then," said Dick, "put me behind the arras, shut me in a chest,
or what ye will, so that I may be here on your return. Indeed, fair
lady," he added, "bear this in mind, that we are sore bested, and may
never look upon each other's face from this night forward till we die."

At this the young lady melted; and when, a little after, the bell
summoned Sir Daniel's household to the board, Dick was planted very
stiffly against the wall, at a place where a division in the tapestry
permitted him to breathe the more freely, and even to see into the room.

He had not been long in this position, when he was somewhat strangely
disturbed. The silence, in that upper storey of the house, was only
broken by the flickering of the flames and the hissing of a green log in
the chimney; but presently, to Dick's strained hearing, there came the
sound of some one walking with extreme precaution; and soon after the
door opened, and a little black-faced, dwarfish fellow, in Lord Shoreby's
colours, pushed first his head, and then his crooked body, into the
chamber. His mouth was open, as though to hear the better; and his