long leave my shop."

So saying the chandler preceded them up a wide staircase that led
from a passage behind the shop, and the boys perceived that the
house was far more roomy and comfortable than they had judged from
its outward appearance. Turning to the left when he reached the
top of the stairs the chandler opened a door.

"Dorothy," he said, "here is your kinsman, Master Lirriper, who
has suffered none of the misadventures you have been picturing to
yourself for the last two days, and he has brought with him these
young gentlemen, sons of the rector of Hedingham, to show them
something of London."

"You are welcome, young gentlemen," Dame Dorothy said, "though why
anyone should come to London when he can stay away from it I know
not."

"Why, Dorothy, you are always running down our city, though I know
right well that were I to move down with you to your native Essex
again you would very soon cry out for the pleasures of the town."

"That would I not," she said. "I would be well contented to live
in fresh country air all the rest of my life, though I do not say
that London has not its share of pleasures also, though I care but
little for them."

"Ah, Master Lirriper," her husband said laughing, "you would not
think, to hear her talk, that there is not a feast or a show that
Dorothy would stay away from. She never misses an opportunity, I