'You know all men in the land,' she said, with fear and surprise.
'I had him to master for the Lady Mary, since he is well disposed.'
''Tis an arrant knave tho' the best of pedagogues,' she answered. 'He was cast out of his mastership at Eton for being a rogue.'
'For that, the worshipful your father had him to master,' he said ironically.
'No, for that he was a ruined man, and taught for his victuals. We welly starved at home, my sisters and I.'
He said slowly:
'The better need that you should grow beloved here.'
Standing there, before the bushes where no ears could overhear, he put to her more questions. She had some Greek, more than a little French, she could judge a good song, she could turn a verse in Latin or the vulgar tongue. She professed to be able to ride well, to be conversant with the terms of venery, to shoot with the bow, and to have studied the Fathers of the Church.
'These things are well liked in high places,' he said. 'His Highness' self speaks five tongues, loveth a nimble answer, and is a noble huntsman.' He surveyed her as if she were a horse he were pricing. 'But I doubt not you have appraised yourself passing well,' he uttered.
'I have had some to make me pleasant speeches,' she answered, 'but too many cannot be had.'