'Then I will swear she is more large.'
'No; not one half so bounteous is her form,' he answered, and moved across to the couch.
'Then if you can bear her weight up you can bear mine,' she said, and moved away from him.
'Nay,' he answered. 'She would help me on,' and he fumbled in the shadows for her hand. She drew herself together into a small space.
'You affect her more than me,' she said, with a swift motion simulating jealousy.
'By the breasts of Venus, no!' he answered.
'Oh, once more use such words,' she murmured, and surrendered to him her soft hand. He rubbed it between both of his cold ones and uttered:
'By the Paphian Queen: by her teams of doves and sparrows! By the bower of Phyllis and the girdle of Egypt's self! I love thee!'
She gurgled 'oh's' of pleasure.
'But this Margot Poins is tirewoman to the Lady Katharine Howard.'