“Will such-like a maid be known to so fine a gentleman as yon squire?”
“Haply not. Yet I 'll swear by Saint Christopher 't was her I saw in the church when he looked through the door.”
“Eh, well,—the little King 's a good fellow, say I,” quoth the man that had first spoken, and added, “So is Jack Straw.”
Whereupon there fell silence upon all of them, and only the clinking of hammer against stone was heard till the Commons came out of the Chapter House with a great clatter.
CHAPTER II
In Malvern Chase
HE porter at the gate of Malvern Priory was a very old man, but he had good eyes, and he knew a pretty thing when he saw it.
“Thou wilt speak with Brother Owyn, wilt thou?” he said to Calote in his toothless voice. “By my troth, I 'll have thee to know, hussy, that this is no household of gadding friars, but a sober and well-conducted priory. Our monks do not come and go at the bidding of wenches.”
“Good brother, I come not of myself,” said Calote, “I am sent a message of my father.”