"Meant it earnestly?"

"Yes ... a new kirtle ... a gold ring ... flowers ... and sack-posset
and pasties to all the guests," she explained. "Is that what you mean
... hem ... what _thou_, meanest, Master Busy?"

"Of a surety, mistress ... and if thou wouldst allow me to ... to ..."

"To what, Master Busy?"

"To salute thee," said the saintly man, with a becoming blush, "as the
Lord doth allow his creatures to salute one another ... with a chaste
kiss, mistress."

Then as she seemed to demur, he added by way of persuasion:

"I am not altogether a poor man, mistress; and there is that in my
coffer upstairs put by, as would please thee in the future."

"Nay! I was not thinking of the money, Master Busy," said this daughter
of Eve, coyly, as she held a rosy cheek out in the direction of the
righteous man.

'Tis the duty even of a veracious chronicler to draw a discreet veil
over certain scenes full of blissful moments for those whom he portrays.

There are no data extant as to what occurred during the next few
seconds in the old oak-beamed dining-room of Acol Court in the Island of
Thanet. Certain it is that when next we get a peep at Master