'Why? Because he may not marry!' This created a laugh among some who were always glad to hear old Joe Jordan's remarks, though they might not be exactly in accordance with their own. 'That is their misfortune, not their fault. I would not be a priest, to take such a vow.' 'I'll tell thy wife of thee, Master Jordan,' exclaimed Abdil Foley, one of the journeymen, who happened to be then employed in fitting up some frames belonging to the tapestry-room in De Freston's Tower. 'And she would thank thee for thy pains, and say, Bachelor Foley, do thou marry, or else turn thou priest and get thee into the cloister.' 'Abdil, thou hast got an able answer. Go to and get married.' 'I will when it suits my purpose!' 'Well, friends, here's a health to our young mistress; and may she marry a nobler lord than her father, if he can be found in the land. What do you say to that, old Joe? 'I say, as an independent man would say, it may be improved upon.' 'How so?' 'Will you all drink it if I give it you improved?' All vociferated 'Yes.' 'Well, then, I say, Here's a health to our young mistress and may she marry the man of her mind.' 'Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!' 'But may that man be a lord!' 'May that be as it may be. Our lord's a deserving lord. A good master, kind friend, upright, learned, wise, independent, generous, and great; and if all the barons of England were like him, their nobility would be an ornament to them, and they would be ornaments to the people; but I say it with no disrespect to our master, God bless him! there are many lords who visit him not half so good looking, nor half so knightly, nor half so learned, nor half so well behaved, as either Masters Latimer or Wolsey, now the guests at his table.' 'Well, which would you have for a master?' 'That is not for me to choose--I could serve either; for they have both held much converse with me while the tower was building, and I can perceive both are learned, both are gentlemen.' 'I think she likes young Wolsey,' said one, 'but surely she will never marry a merchant's son, and the owner of the butcher's shambles at Ipswich. My uncle there, John Carrington, is one of his tenants, and told me that old Wolsey is as strict a master as if he had nothing else to live upon than the rents of the butcher's shambles.' 'Our lord,' said another, 'did not scruple to marry a merchant's daughter, though he was a rich one, it is true! Why, then, should not his daughter smile upon a merchant's son; and that son such a one as he is? Hey, Master Bigmore! this is true logic.' 'I don't understand your logic. I am for supporting the house of my master, and not letting it fall.'