"Why, first, it meant--I hate you sufficiently to pretend to despise you. Then--I'll murder you whenever I can do so safely; and again it went to say--Give my best love to your master, and tell him he'll hear more of me soon."
"By my faith! a good reading, and, I doubt not, a true one," replied the knight; "but we must try and render his malice of no avail. And now, tell me, when did you see him the second time?"
"The second time was after dinner, sir," said Longpole, "when his grace the king, yourself, and the Duke of Suffolk kept the barriers against all comers."
"He did not try the field, did he?" demanded Sir Osborne.
"Oh, no!" replied Longpole; "he stood looking on at a good distance, wrapped up in a cloak, so that it needed sharp eyes to recognise him; but I saw him all the time fix his eyes upon you, so like a cat before a mouse-hole, that I thought every minute to see him overspring the barrier and take you by the throat. Depend upon it that good and honest knight, like his german-cousin, Satan, never travels for any good, and we shall hear more of him."
"I doubt it not," answered Sir Osborne; "and we must guard against him. But now, Longpole, a word or two to you. Did you give the packet, as I directed you, to Mistress Geraldine, Lady Katrine's woman?"
"I did, your worship," answered Longpole, somewhat surprised at the serious air that came over his lord's countenance: "I gave it immediately I received it from your hands."
"That was right," replied Sir Osborne. "And now, let me say to you, my good Heartley, that I have remarked you often with this same girl Geraldine, and it seems to me that you are seeking her love."
"Oh! good now! your worship," cried Longpole; "if you prohibit me from making love, it's all over with me. Indeed, your worship, I could not do without it. It is meat, drink, and sleep to me; better than a stirrup-cup when I rise in the morning, or a sleeping cup when I go to bed at night. 'Faith I could not sleep without being in love. There, when I was with Sir Payan, where there was nothing to fall in love with but the portrait of his grandmother against the wall, I could not sleep o' nights at all, and was forced to take to deer-stealing, just for amusement. 'Odslife! your worship is hard on me. There, you have a bellyful of love, all day long, from the highest ladies of the court, and you would deny me as much as will lie in the palm of a serving-woman."
"Nay, nay, Longpole!" said Sir Osborne, laughing; "you have taken me up too hastily. All I meant to say was, merely, that seeing you are evidently seeking this poor girl's love, you must not play her false. I do not wish to imply that you would wrong her virtue: of that I am sure you are incapable; but I mean you must not win her love, and then leave her for another."