"Bless us, Saint Mary!--art thou here again?" quoth Dame Elizabeth of a testier fashion than she was wont. "Get thee gone, child; I have no time to waste. Dear heart, what a fuss is here over a crown or twain! Dost think thy money is lost? I will pay thee when it liketh me; I have not my purse to mine hand at this minute." And on she walked, brushing past the maid. I tarried. "Are you Hilda la Vileyne?" I said unto her. "Dame, that is my name, and here is my little sister Iolande. She hath not tasted meat [food] this day, nor should not yesterday, had not a kindly gentleman, given me a denier to buy soup. But truly I do not ask for charity--only to be paid what I have honestly earned." "And hadst thou some soup yesterday?" "Yes--no--Oh, I am older; I can wait better than the little ones. The mother is sick: she and the babes must not wait. It does not signify for me." Oh, how hungered were those great eyes, that looked too large for the white face! The very name of soup seemed to have brought the craving look therein. I turned to the small. "Tell me, Iolande, had Hilda any of the soup yesterday?" "No," said the child; "I and Madeleine drank it, every drop, that our mother left." "And had Hilda nothing?" "There was a mouldy crust in the cupboard," said the child. "It had dropped behind the cup, and Hilda found it when she took the cup down. We could not see it behind. We can only just reach to take the cup down, and put it up again. That was what Hilda had, and she wiped the cup with one end of it." "The cup that had held the soup?" "Yes, surely," said the child, with a surprised look. "We only have one,--does not Madame know?" "It is an esquelle [porringer; a shallow bowl], not a cup," said Hilda, reddening a little: "the child hardly knows the difference." I felt nearhand as though I could have twisted Dame Elizabeth's neck for meat for those children. "And are you, in good sooth, so ill off as that?" said I. "No meat, and only one esquelle in all the house?" "Dame," said Hilda meekly, as in excuse, "our father was long ill, and now is our mother likewise; and many things had to be sold to pay the apothecary, and also while I waited on them could I not be at work; and my little sisters are not old enough to do much. But truly it is only these last few weeks that we have been quite so ill off as to have no food, and I have been able to earn but a few deniers now and then-- enough to keep us alive, but no more." "How much oweth you Dame Elizabeth?" said I.