"Is it true, damsel?" asked Duke Deodonato.
"Hear me, your Highness!" answered she. "I left my dwelling but an instant, for we were in sore straits for——"
"Bread?" asked Deodonato, a touch of sympathy in his voice.
"May it please your Highness, no—pins wherewith to fasten our hair. And, as I ran to the merchant's, this aged man——"
"I am but turned of fifty," interrupted Fusbius.
"And have not yet learned silence!" asked Deodonato severely. "Damsel, proceed!"
"Caught me by my gown as I ran, and——"
"I proposed marriage to her," said Fusbius.
"Nay, if you proposed marriage, she shall marry you," said Deodonato. "By the crown of my fathers, she shall marry you! But what said he, damsel?"
"May it please your Highness, he said that I had the prettiest face in all the Duchy, and that he would have no wife but me; and thereupon he kissed me; and I would have none of him, and I struck him and escaped."