"My lord," she whispered, "he has importuned me for audience. I will speak with you again ere you ride." Villon turned to her. "We ride at nine, remember," he said in a low voice; and then in a louder tone, looking at Noel, he added mockingly, "Till then I shall busy myself in writing my last will and testament, and bequeathing a thousand nothings to a thousand nobodies to puzzle posterity. You shall taste of my bounty, Messire Noel," and he began to improvise derisively: "To Messire Noel, named the neat By those who love him, I bequeath A helmless ship, a houseless street, A wordless book, a swordless sheath, An hourless clock, a leafless wreath, A bed sans sheet, a board sans meat, A bell sans tongue, a saw sans teeth, To make his nothingness complete." Noel shrugged his shoulders and turned his back. He was very irate, but he was resolved to show nothing but indifference. "Do you leave me nothing?" Katherine whispered, and Villon answered: "Now and always the heart of my heart." He turned on his heel and glided into the liquid darkness of the rose alley, alone with exquisite thoughts. Katherine turned to Noel haughtily. "Well?" she said. "I have always to seek you nowadays," Noel protested. Katherine tossed her head, and her tresses trembled like leaves in the moonlight. "The world is not yet so old that the wooing must be done by women." "I am out of favour," Noel complained, "since a fellow from nowhere plays the fool in high places." Katherine's eyes showered scorn upon him. "I do not hate you for railing at him, but it does not help me to love you." Noel caught at the word. "You loved me once," he asserted. She shook her head pityingly. "We played with great words as children play with coloured balls. It is easy to say 'I love you,' and often very sweet; yet the coloured balls roll into the corner, and the child forgets them when the moon of childhood wanes." A wistful irritation puckered Noel's smooth countenance. "You have outgrown me?" he questioned. Katherine drew away from him till the moonlight that shone between them lay wide and white. She answered quietly: "My soul was in bud a week ago. To-day it is in blossom." Noel threw up his arms impatiently. "God have mercy! What can this fellow do that is denied to me? Can he stride a horse, or fly a hawk better? show a brighter sword in quarrel, or tune a smoother lute in calm? Can he out-dance me, out-drink me, out-courtier me, out-soldier me? No, no, no! And must I now believe that he can out-love me?" Katherine, weary of the controversy, began to ascend the steps to the palace. She spoke as she mounted: "When a man comes to court, it is worth while to be a woman. You will learn that some day, Sir Noel, if you grow to be a man." Noel retorted: "It is no great blazon to be the favourite of a king. Gentlemen who brag little may do much. The old love may outlast the new." Katherine frowned at his mystery.