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 bestead, 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 story 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 eyes,
which were very bright, flitted restlessly and swiftly to and fro. He
went round and round the room, striking here and there upon the
hangings; but Dick, by a miracle, escaped his notice. Then he looked
below the furniture, and examined the lamp; and at last, with an air of
cruel disappointment, was preparing to go away as silently as he had
come, when down he dropped upon his knees, picked up something from
among the rushes on the floor, examined it, and, with every signal of
delight, concealed it in the wallet at his belt.

Dick's heart sank, for the object in question was a tassel from his own
girdle; and it was plain to him that this dwarfish spy, who took a
malign delight in his employment, would lose no time in bearing it to
his mas