“Was the French Church, then, lesser corrupted than that of Rome?” queried Edith.
“Certainly so,” he said: “and it hath resisted the Pope’s usurpations nigh as much as our own Church of England. I mean not in respect of the Reformation, but rather the time before the Reformation, when our kings were ever striving with the Pope concerning his right to appoint unto dignities and livings. Yet the Reformation itself began first in France, and had they in authority been willing to aid it as in England, France had been a Protestant country at this day.”
That evening, as they sat round the fire, Hans astonished them all.
“Lady Lettice,” said he, “were you willing that I should embark in trade?”
“Hans, my dear boy!” was the astonished response.
“I will not do it without your good-will thereto,” said he; “nor would I at all have done it, could I have seen any better way. But I feel that I ought to be a-work on some matter, and not tarry a burden on your hands: and all this time have I been essaying two matters—to look out for a service, and to make a little money for you. The second I have in some sense accomplished, though not to the extent I did desire, and here be the proceeds,”—and rising from his seat, Hans opened his purse, and poured several gold pieces into his friend’s lap. “The former, howbeit, is not—”
He was interrupted by a little cry from Lady Louvaine.
“Hans! thou surely thinkest not, dear lad, that I shall strip thee of thy first earnings, won by hard work?”
“You will, Lady Lettice, without you mean to disappoint and dishearten me very sore,” he answered.
“But all this!” she exclaimed.