'Nay,' she answered. 'It is time you learned husbandry who have taught so many and earned so little.'
He slipped himself softly into the cushions beside her.
'Would you spoil so fair a tale?' he said. 'Would you have me to break so many vows? I have promised a mort of women marriage, and so long as I be not wed I may keep faith with any one of them.'
She held her face away from him and laughed.
'That is as it may be,' she said. 'But when you wed with me to-night you will keep faith with one woman.'
'Woman,' he pleaded. 'I am a great scholar.'
'Ay,' she answered, 'and great scholars have climbed to great estates.'
She continued to count the coins that came from his little money-bags; the shadow of her hood upon the great beams grew more portentous.
'It is thought that your magistership may rise to be Chancellor of the Realm of England,' she added.
He clutched his forehead.