'Aye, I am a good man,' he boasted, 'but when I come back you shall see me a great one. There shall be patents for farms given me. There shall be gold. There shall be never such another as I. I will give thee such gowns, Kat.'
She sat still, but smoothed back a lock of her fair hair that glowed in the firelight.
'When I am a great man,' he babbled on, 'I will not wed thee, for who art thou to wed with a great man? Thou art more cheaply won. But I will give thee....'
'Thou fool,' she shrieked suddenly at him. 'These men shall slay thee. Get thee to Paris to murder as thou wilt. Thou shalt never come back and I shall be well rid of thee.'
He gave her a snarling laugh:
'Toy thou with no man when I am gone,' he said with sudden ferocity, so that his blue eyes appeared to start from his head.
'Poor fool, thou shalt never come back,' she answered.
He had an air of cunning and triumph.
'I have settled all this with that man that's no man, Viridus; thou art here as in a cloister amongst the maids of the Court. No man shall see thee; thou shalt speak with none that wears not a petticoat. I have so contracted with that man.'
'I tell thee they have contrived this to be rid of thee,' she said.