“Why, you said so.”
“That is another matter.” She then turned on him the face of a Madonna. “I lied,” said she sweetly. “And to save your soul and body, I'd maybe tell a worse lie than that, at need. I am but a woman, Ah, well, it is but two butts' length from here at any rate.”
“Without a lie?”
“Humph! Three, without a lie.”
And sure enough, in a few minutes they came up to the manse.
A candle was burning in the vicar's parlour. “She is waking still,” whispered Margaret.
“Beautiful! beautiful!” said Clement, and stopped to look at it.
“What, in Heaven's name?”
“That little candle, seen through the window at night. Look an it be not like some fair star of size prodigious: it delighteth the eyes, and warmeth the heart of those outside.”
“Come, and I'll show thee something better,” said Margaret, and led him on tiptoe to the window.