Mr Whitstable spoke. "Methinks, Mr Louvaine, it were pity to snatch the crust from an hungry man. Go you now with your brother, until he make an end of his supper; then return here in time to make up accounts and close. If this gentleman be the steady and sober man that his looks and your words promise, you can bring him hither to your chamber for the night." "I thank you right heartily, Master. He is sober as Mr Vice-Chancellor, and good as an angel," said Aubrey. Hans followed him, with an amused look, to the Golden Lion, where they supped on chicken and Banbury cakes, and Aubrey heard all the news--the one item excepted which Hans had come especially to tell. The tongues went fast, but no sooner had the hour rung out from the clock of Saint Ebbe's than Aubrey sprang up and said he must return. "Thou canst wander forth for an hour, only lose not thyself," he said to Hans, "and when my work is done, I will join thee beneath the arch of West Gate." Hans obeyed with amused pleasure. This was an altered Aubrey. When had he cared to keep promises and be in time for work? They met presently under West Gate, and Aubrey played cicerone until dusk set in, when he took Hans to his own quiet little chamber at the bookseller's shop. It was very plainly furnished, and Hans quickly saw that on the drawers lay a Bible which bore evidence of being used. "Thou little wist," said Hans affectionately, when they were thus alone, "how glad I am to see thee, Aubrey, and to perceive thy good welfare in this place." He did not add "good conduct," but he meant it. "How much richer shouldst thou have been, Hans, if thou hadst never beheld me?" was the answer. "I should have been poorer, by the loss of the only brother I ever had." There was more feeling in Aubrey's look than Hans was wont to see, and an amount of tenderness in his tone which he had no idea how it astonished Hans to hear. "My brother," he said, "you have had your revenge, and it is terrible." Hans looked, as he felt, honestly surprised. It was his nature to remember vividly benefits received, but to forget those which he conferred. "Dost thou not know?" said Aubrey, reading the look. "After my unworthy conduct toward thee, that thou shouldst take my debts upon thine own--" "Prithee, shut thy mouth," answered Hans with a laugh, "and make me not to blush by blowing the trumpet over that which but gave me a pleasure. I ensure thee, my brother," he added more gravely, "that I had a sufficiency to cover all was a true contentment unto me. As to revenge, no such thought ever crossed my mind for a moment." "The revenge had been lesser if it were designed," was the reply. "And how goeth it with thee here?" asked Hans, not sorry to change the subject. "Art thou content with thy work?--and doth Mr Whitstable entreat thee well?"