"Is it so?" asked the printer, his face lighting up. "Art thou
willing to labour and toil, and give up hope of fee and honour, if
so thou mayst win the truth?"

Ambrose folded his hands with a gesture of earnestness, and Lucas
Hansen said, "Bless thee, my son! Methinks I can aid thee in thy
quest, so thou canst lay aside," and here his voice grew sharper and
more peremptory, "all thy gentleman's airs and follies, and serve--
ay, serve and obey."

"I trust so," returned Ambrose; "my brother is even now becoming
prentice to Master Giles Headley, and we hope to live as honest men
by the work of our hands and brains."

"I forgot that you English herren are not so puffed up with pride
and scorn like our Dutch nobles," returned the printer. "Canst live
sparingly, and lie hard, and see that thou keepst the house clean,
not like these English swine?"

"I hope so," said Ambrose, smiling; "but I have an uncle and aunt,
and they would have me lie every night at their house beside the
Temple gardens."

"What is thine uncle?"

"He hath a post in the meine of my Lord Archbishop of York," said
Ambrose, blushing and hesitating a little. "He cometh to and fro to
his wife, who dwells with her old father, doing fine lavender's work
for the lawyer folk therein."