'Ay,' returned Anne, 'your merlin charmed you far more. Master
Bertram, the loan of your purse. I would reward the honest man who
housed me.'

Bertram laughed and said, tossing up the little bag that hung to his
girdle, 'Do you think, fair damsel, that a poor Border squire carries
about largesse in gold and silver? Let your clown come with us to
Greystone, and thence have what meed the Prioress may bestow on him,
for a find that your poor servant would have given worlds to make.'

'Hearest thou, Hob?' said Anne. 'Come with us to the convent, and
thou shalt have thy guerdon.'

Hob, however, scratched his head, with a more boorish air than he had
before manifested, and muttered something about a cow that needed his
attention, and that he could not spare the time from his herd for all
that the Prioress was like to give him.

'Take this, then,' said Anne, disengaging a gold clasp from her neck,
and giving it to him. 'Bear it to the goodwife and bid her recollect
me in her prayers.'

'I shall come and redeem it from thee, sulky carle as thou art,' said
Bertram. 'Such jewels are not for greasy porridge-fed housewives.
Hark thee, have it ready for me! I shall be at thy hovel ere long'--
as Anne waved to Hob when she was lifted to her seat.

But Hob had already turned away, and Anne, as she held on by Archie's
leathern belt, in her gay tone was beginning to defend him by
declaring that porridge and grease did not go together, so the