Suddenly she turned and faced the stooping man: "Your scarf take: I will

not have it. No, and I will not have anything that I have bought from

you. All of the goods you shall receive back; and my money, give it to

me. You are no honest hawker: you are a bad man, who have come here for

a bad woman. You know that of my husband you have been talking--I mean

lying. You know that this is his house, and that his true wife am I.

Not one more word shall you speak.--Lettice, bring here all the goods I

bought from this man; poisoned may be the unguents and scents and

gloves. Of such things I have heard."

She had spoken with an angry rapidity that for the moment confounded the

stranger; but at this point he lifted himself with an insolent air, and

said, "The goods be bought and paid for, madam; and, in faith, I will

not buy them back again."

"In faith, then, I will send for Sir Thomas Swaffham. A magistrate is

he, and Captain Hyde's friend. Not one penny of my money shall you have;

for, indeed, your goods I will not wear."

She pointed then to the various articles which Lettice had brought

back; and, with the shrug of a man who accepts the inevitable, he

replaced them in his pack, and then ostentatiously counted back the

money Katherine had given him. She examined every coin, and returned a

crown. "My piece this is not. It may be false. I will have the one I

gave to you.--Lettice, bring here water in a bowl; let the silver and

gold lay in it until morning."

And, turning to the pedler, "Your cap take from the floor, and go."

"Of a truth, madam, you be not so cruel as to turn me on the fens, and

it a dark night. There be bogs all about; and how the road do lay for

the next house, I know not."

"The road to my house was easy to find; well, then, you can find the

road back to whoever it was sent you here. With my servants you shall

not sit; under my roof you shall not stay."

"I have no mind to go."

"See you the mastiff at my feet? I advise you stir him not up, for

death is in his jaw. To the gate, and with good haste! In one half-hour

the kennels I will have opened. If then within my boundaries you are, it

is at your life's peril."




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