'Eheu!' he said. 'If you have heard men say that, you know that wedded to thee I could never climb.'
'Then I shall very comfortably keep my inn here in Paris town,' she answered. 'You have here fourteen pounds and eleven shillings.'
He stretched forth his lean hands:
'Why, I will marry thee in the morning,' he said, and he moistened his lips with the tip of his tongue. Outside the door there was a shuffling of several feet.
'I knew not other guests were in the house,' he uttered, and fell again to kissing her.
'Knew you not an envoy was come from Cleves?' she whispered.
Her head fell back and he supported it with one trembling hand. He shook like a leaf when her voice rang out:
'Au secours! Au secours!'
There was a great jangle, light fell into the dusky room through the doorhole, and he found himself beneath the eyes of many scullions with spits, cooks with carving forks, and kitchenmaids with sharpened distaffs of steel.