"_Ha, chetife_!" cried I. "Must I have firstly, secondly, thirdly, yea, up to thirty-seventhly, like old Father Edison's homilies?" "Better so," saith he, "than to course three hares together and catch none." "I'll catch mine hare yet, as thou shall see," saith I. "Be it done. Gee up!" saith he. [Note 9]. Well, up came I into the Queen's antechamber, where were sat Dame Elizabeth, and Dame Isabel de Lapyoun, and Dame Joan de Vaux, and little Meliora. And right as I came in at the door, Dame Joan dropped her sewing off her knee, and saith-- "Lack-a-day! I am aweary of living in this world!" "Well, if so," saith Dame Elizabeth, peacefully waxing her thread, "you had best look about for a better." "Nay!" quoth she, "how to get there?" "Ask my Lord of Winchester," saith Dame Isabel. "I shall lack the knowledge ill ere I trouble him," she made answer. "Is it he with the Queen this even?" "There's none with the Queen!" quoth Dame Isabel, as sharp as if she should have snapped her head off. Dame Joan looked up in some astonishment. "Dear heart!" said she, "I thought I heard voices in her chamber." "There was one with her," answereth Meliora, "when I passed the door some minutes gone." "Maybe the visitor is gone," said I. "As I came in but now, I met one coming forth." "Who were it, marry?" quoth Dame Joan. "It was none of the household," said I. "A tall, personable man, wrapped in a great cloak, wherewith he hid his face; but whether it were from me or from the November even, that will I not say." "There hath been none such here," saith Dame Elizabeth. "Not in this chamber," saith Meliora. "Meliora Servelady!" Dame Isabel made answer, "who gave thee leave to join converse with thy betters?" [Note 10]. The sub-damsel looked set down for a minute, but nought ever daunted her for long. She was as pert a little maid as ever I knew, and but little deserved her name of Meliora. (Ah me, is this another hare? Have back.) "There hath been none of any sort come to the Queen to-day," said Dame Isabel, in so angered a tone that I began at once to marvel who had come of whom she feared talk. "Nay, but there so hath!" makes response Dame Joan: "have you forgot Master Almoner that was with her this morrow nigh an hour touching his accounts?--and Ralph Richepois with his lute after dinner?" "Marry, and the Lady Gibine, Prioress of Oremont," addeth Dame Elizabeth. "And the two Beguines--" began Meliora; but she ended not, for Dame Isabel boxed her ears. "Ay, and Jack Bonard, that she sent with letters to the Queen of France," saith Dame Joan. "Yea, and Ivo le Breton came a-begging, yon poor old man that had served her when a child," made answer Dame Elizabeth.