He started back and held his hands over his head.
'Why, God help you, child! Is that your errand?' he said, deep from his chest. 'I meddle not in this matter.'
She answered obstinately:
'Pray you—by your early vows—consent to carry me my letter.'
He shook his head bodingly.
'I thought it had been a matter of a masque at the Bishop of Winchester's; or I had never come nigh you. Cicely Elliott hath copied out the part you should speak. Pray you ask me no more of the other errand.'
She said:
'For a great knight you are a friend only in little matters!'
He uttered reproachfully:
'Child: it is no little matter to act as go-between for the Bishop of Winchester, even if it be for no more than a masque. How otherwise does he not send to you direct? So much I was ready to do for you, a stranger, who am a man that has no party.'