“Amphillis, if thou blurt out this to my Lady, I’ll hate thee for ever and ever, Amen!” said Ricarda.
“I must meditate thereon,” was her cousin’s answer. “Soothly, I would not by my good will do thee an ill turn, Rica; and if it may stand with my conscience to be silent, thou hast nought to fear. Yet if my Lady ask me aught touching thee, that may not be thus answered, I must speak truth, and no lie.”
“A murrain take thy conscience! Canst not say a two-three times the Rosary of our Lady to ease it?”
“Maybe,” said Amphillis, drily, “our Lady hath no more lore for lying than I have.”
“Mistress Ricarda!” said Agatha, joining them as they rose from the table, “I do right heartily pray you of better acquaintance. I trust you and I be of the same fashion of thinking, and both love laughter better than tears.”
“In good sooth, I hate long faces and sad looks,” said Ricarda, accepting Agatha’s offered kiss of friendship.
“You be not an ill-matched pair,” added Amphillis, laughing. “Only, I pray you, upset not the quirle by over much prancing.”
Note 1. Still used in its original sense of uncomfortable.
Note 2. The Dutch were then known as High Dutch, the Germans as Low Dutch.