about with her, it seems, and she I can make to obey me like a spaniel.
We can afford no better, and she is well born, and since I bought her the
purple paduasoy and the new lappets she has looked well enough to serve."

"Dunstanwolde need not fear for thee now," said Sir Jeoffry. "Thou art a
clever and foreseeing wench, Clo."

"Dunstanwolde nor any man!" she answered. "There will be no gossip of
me. It is Anne and Barbara thou must look to, Dad, lest their plain
faces lead them to show soft hearts. My face is my fortune!"

When Sir John Oxon paid his visit to Sir Jeoffry the days of Mistress
Margery were filled with carking care. The night before he arrived,
Mistress Clorinda called her to her closet and laid upon her her commands
in her own high way. She was under her woman's hands, and while her
great mantle of black hair fell over the back of her chair and lay on the
floor, her tirewoman passing the brush over it, lock by lock, she was at
her greatest beauty. Either she had been angered or pleased, for her
cheek wore a bloom even deeper and richer than usual, and there was a
spark like a diamond under the fringe of her lashes.

At her first timorous glance at her, Mistress Margery thought she must
have been angered, the spark so burned in her eyes, and so evident was
the light but quick heave of her bosom; but the next moment it seemed as
if she must be in a pleasant humour, for a little smile deepened the
dimples in the corner of her bowed, full lips. But quickly she looked up
and resumed her stately air.

"This gentleman who comes to visit to-morrow," she said, "Sir John
Oxon--do you know aught of him?"