She had been minded to mock him in the beginning of his speech, but his dangerous pale-blue eyes made her feel that if he were ridiculous he was also very powerful, and that she was in the hands of these men.
Therefore she answered that youth indeed was a pleasant season when health, good victuals and the love of God sustained it.
He surveyed her out of the corners of his eyes.
'Seek, then, to deserve these good things,' he said. He stayed some time longer directing her how she should wear her clothes, and then in the gathering dusk he dwindled stealthily through the door.
'It is to make you like a chained-up beast or slave,' Margot said to her mistress.
'Why, hold your tongue, coney, after to-day,' Katharine answered, 'the walls shall hear. I am a very poor man's daughter and must even earn my bread if I would stay here.'
'They could never tie me so,' Margot retorted.
Her mistress laughed:
'Why, you may set nets for the wind, but what a man will catch is still uncertain.'
It was cold, and they piled up the fire, waiting for some one to bring them candles.