Time was when I had thought that I might call him son, for there
was never a day that he did not pass with my girls, but I fear
that his crooked back sped him ill in his wooing."
"Alas, Sir John! It is his mind that is more crooked than his
back. He is a perilous man with women, for the Devil hath given
him such a tongue and such an eye that he charms them even as the
basilisk. Marriage may be in their mind, but never in his, so
that I could count a dozen and more whom he has led to their
undoing. It is his pride and his boast over the whole countryside."
"Well, well, and what is this to me or mine?"
"Even now, Sir John, as I rode my mule up the road I met this man
speeding toward his home. A woman rode by his side, and though
her face was hooded I heard her laugh as she passed me. That
laugh I have heard before, and it was under this very roof, from
the lips of Mistress Edith."
The Knight's knife dropped from his hand. But the debate had been
such that neither Mary nor Nigel could fail to have heard it. Mid
the rough laughter and clatter of voices from below the little
group at the high table had a privacy of their own.
"Fear not, father," said the girl--"indeed, the good Father
Athanasius hath fallen into error, and Edith will be with us anon.
I have heard her speak of this man many times of late, and always
with bitter words.
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