there was strong love between them; but at last he said: "Well,
son, maybe it were best for thee; but maybe also we shall not meet
again."

"Yet if we do meet, father, then shalt thou see a new man in me."

"Well," said Bartholomew, "at least I know on whom to lay the loss
of thee, and when thou art gone, for thou shalt have thine own way
herein, she shall no longer abide in my house. Nay, but it were
for the strife that should arise thenceforth betwixt her kindred and
ours, it should go somewhat worse with her than that."

Said Walter: "I pray thee shame her not more than needs must be,
lest, so doing, thou shame both me and thyself also."

Bartholomew held his peace again for a while; then he said: "Goeth
she with child, my son?"

Walter reddened, and said: "I wot not; nor of whom the child may
be." Then they both sat silent, till Bartholomew spake, saying:
"The end of it is, son, that this is Monday, and that thou shalt go
aboard in the small hours of Wednesday; and meanwhile I shall look
to it that thou go not away empty-handed; the skipper of the
Katherine is a good man and true, and knows the seas well; and my
servant Robert the Low, who is clerk of the lading, is trustworthy
and wise, and as myself in all matters that look towards chaffer.
The Katherine is new and stout-builded, and should be lucky, whereas
she is under the ward of her who is the saint called upon in the
church where thou wert christened, and myself before thee; and thy
mother, and my father and mother all lie under the chancel thereof,