las, shaking his head, "I admire the great
earl, and were I lord or gentle, the great earl should be my chief.
But each to his order; and the trader's tree grows not out of a baron's
walking-staff. King Edward may be a stern ruler, but he is a friend
to the goldsmiths, and has just confirmed our charter. 'Let every man
praise the bridge he goes over,' as the saw saith. Truce to this talk,
Master Nevile. I hear that your young hostess--ehem!--Mistress Sibyll,
is greatly marvelled at among the court gallants, is it so?"

Marmaduke's frank face grew gloomy. "Alas! dear foster-brother," he
said, dropping the somewhat affected tone in which he had before spoken,
"I must confess to my shame, that I cannot yet get the damsel out of my
thoughts, which is what I consider it a point of manhood and spirit to
achieve."

"How so?"

"Because, when a maiden chooseth steadily to say nay to your wooing, to
follow her heels, and whine and beg, is a dog's duty, not a man's."

"What!" exclaimed Alwyn, in a voice of great eagerness, "mean you to say
that you have wooed Sibyll Warner as your wife?"

"Verily, yes!"

"And failed?"

"And failed."

"Poor Marmaduke!"

"There is no 'poor' in the matter, Nick Alwyn," returned Marmaduke,
sturdily; "if a girl likes me, well; if not, there are too many others
in the wide world for a young fellow to break his heart about one. Yet,"
he added, after a short pause, and with a sigh,--"yet, if thou hast
not seen her since she came to the court, thou wilt find her wondrously
changed."

"More's the pity!" said Alwyn, reciprocating his friend's sigh.

"I mean that she seems all the comelier for the court air. And beshrew
me, I think the Lord Hastings, with his dulcet flatteries, hath made it
a sort of frenzy for all the gallants to flock round her."

"I should like to see Master Warner again," said Alwyn; "where lodges
he?"

"Yonder, by the little postern, on the third flight of the turret that
flanks the corridor, [This description refers to that part of the Tower
called the King's or Queen's Lodge, and long since destroyed.] next to
Friar Bungey, the magician; but it is broad daylight, and therefore not
so dangerous,--not but thou mayest as well patter an ave in going up
stairs."

"Farewell, Master Nevile," said Alwyn, smiling; "I will seek the
mechanician, and if I find there Mistress Sibyll, what shall I say from
thee?"

"That young bachelors in the reign of Edward IV. will never want