though he knew better than I "No, no, in three months. So you said."

Then he spoke low again, and went on in a confident tone: "So long as
that I can hold out, by the help of the Saints, if I.... Yea, for I have
enough left to make some great endowment. My possessions, Margery, the
estate which is mine own--No man can guess what a well-governed trading-
house may earn in half a century.--Yes, I tell you, Margery, I can hold
out and wait. Two, or at most three months; they will soon slip away.
The older we grow and the duller is life, the swifter do the days fly."

And verily I had not the heart to tell him that he might have to take
much longer patience, and, whereas I noted how hard he found it to speak
out that which weighed on his mind, I gave him such help as I might; and
then he freely confessed that what he most desired on earth was to
receive absolution and the Viaticum from the hands of the Cardinal.
Meseemed he believed that his Eminence's prayers would serve him better
in Heaven than those of our simple priests, who had not even gained a
bishop's cope; just as the good word of a Prince Elector gains the
Emperor's ear sooner than the petition of a town councillor. Likewise it
soothed his pride, doubtless, to think that he might turn his back on
this world under the good guidance of a prelate in the purple. Hereupon
I promised that his case should be brought to the Cardinal's knowledge by
Ann, and then he gave me to understand that it was his desire that Ann
should come to see him, inasmuch as that her presentment only had brought
him more comfort than the strongest of Master Ulsenius' potions. He
could not be happy to die without her forgiveness, and without blessing
her by hand and word.

And he pointed to my likeness, and said that, albeit it was right well
done, he could bear no more to see it; that it looked forth so full of