“Then this,” said he, “is my counsel. Send word at once to Sir Ambrose, begging him and the other gentlemen that are interested in the matter, and in especial Mr Spender himself, to meet you in a private room at the inn an hour before the dancing begin. Say that you hope to have an answer to the charges, but make no mention of me, and bid your servants not betray my arrival to any one in the town. ’Tis well I came from the t’other side of you, and so had no need to pass through Puckle Acton.” “Then you can confute this man Spender, sir?” asks Dorothy. “Madam,” says he, “I make no doubt but to-morrow we shall see a very pretty comedy played in the inn-parlour. _The False Charge, or the Accuser Unmasked_, hath an agreeable sound, han’t it? They say, _He that mischief hatcheth, mischief catcheth_, and methinks Mr Vane Spender won’t find it otherwise.” “You are indeed an angel, sir,” says Dorothy, and kissed him on the forehead. “Nay,” says he, “though I could wish I were, if I should always be rewarded thus.” And so, with much laughter, to the business of writing a billet for Loll Duss to carry to Sir Ambrose his house, and this despatched, to talking of Surat and the sore changes there, and likewise the great ambition and strange doings of the Emperor Auren Zeeb in his wars in Duccan, which all was as a breath of native air to me, and filled me with great contentment to speak on’t. And thus the day passed agreeably enough, and the earlier part of the next likewise, until it was high time to prepare for the ball. And for this we dressed ourselves with prodigious care, not choosing by any lack of neatness in our apparel to give cause for them that saw us to say that we had lost confidence in the justice of our cause, and so sought to move pity by our neglected aspect. And indeed, when my wife was dressed, she looked as well as I have ever seen her, wearing a gown of very rich brocado, the colours blue and gold, and her lace prodigious fine. Likewise also she was wearing the pearls that Mr Martin had sent her on our marriage, and this piece of gentle flattery did please our old friend mightily.