and opened a drawer therein and took out a little bag,
and gave it into Ralph's hand, and said: "This is the gift
of the gossip; and thou mayst take it without shame;
all the more because if thy father had been a worser man,
and a harder lord he would have had more to give thee.
But now thou hast as much or more as any one of thy brethren."

He took the bag smiling and shame-faced, but she looked on him
fondly and said:

"Now I know not whether I shall lay old Nicholas on thine
heels when he cometh after thee, as come he will full surely;
or whether I shall suffer the old sleuth-hound nose out thy
slot of himself, as full surely he will set on to it."

"Thou mightest tell him," said Ralph, "that I am gone to take
service with the Abbot of St. Mary's of Higham: hah?"

She laughed and said: "Wilt thou do so, lord, and follow the rede
of that goodman of mine, who thinketh himself as wise as Solomon?"

Ralph smiled and answered her nothing.

"Well," she said, "I shall say what likes me when the hour is at hand.
Lo, here! thine horse. Abide yet a moment of time, and then go whither
thou needs must, like the wind of the summer day."

Therewith she went out of the chamber and came back again with
a scrip which she gave to Ralph and said: "Herein is a flask
of drink for the waterless country, and a little meat for the way.