"The days pass by… Our lives are brief… To death we all
do cry,
We live in grief… Through all the days — "
Dearborne sang but her words were shattered by the splintered voice of the Cardinal Allen, finishing-off the verse.
"For we all know… We'll one day die!"
Startled, Dearborne swung around and stood facing him.
Lloyd was startled also and he peered through the tare in the curtain again. There stood the man who almost had him executed a fortnight passed; the same man that had made the fair Dearborne to feel dirty.
"Why haven't you left yet?" she demanded of him, and he just smiled.
"It's a pity, is not — I mean, the girl's death." he began. "You know, fair Dearborne, the ArchBishop has very good eyes for beauty but he does not understand the mind of women. He pushed too much. He should influence, not frighten." he kept smiling as he moved a step closer to her. "He has only one child to my thirteen, and that child is a cripple, in its mind."
Dearborne had finally taken hold of herself and spoke out at Allen. "Get out, you wretched weasel!" she shouted but this inspired Allen to move closer yet.
"You will be wholly happy to mother my fourteenth."
"I should say not."