Sithence I writ what goeth afore, have we all been rare gladded by _Walter's_ coming, which was just when the dusk had fallen. He looketh right well of his face, and is grown higher, and right well-favoured: but, eh me, so fine! I felt well-nigh inclined to lout [courtesy] me low unto this magnifical gentleman, rather than take him by the hand and kiss him. _Ned_ saith-- "The Queen's Highness' barge ahoy!--all lined and padded o' velvet!--and in the midst the estate [the royal canopy] of cloth of gold! Off with your caps, my hearties!" _Walter_ laughed, and took it very well. Saith Aunt _Joyce_, when he come to her-- "_Wat_, how much art thou worth by the yard?" "Ten thousand pound, _Aunt_," saith he, boldly, and laughing. "Ha!" saith she, somewhat dry. "I trust 'tis safe withinside, for I see it not without." SELWICK HALL, MARCH YE IV. Yesterday, being _Sunday_, was nought said touching _Wat_ and his ways: only all to church, of course, at matins and evensong, but this day no sermons. This morrow, after breakfast, as we arose from the table, saith _Father_:-- "_Walter_, my lad, thou and I must have some talk." "An' it like you, Sir," saith _Wat_. "Wouldst thou choose it rather without other ears?" "Not any way, I thank you, Sir." "Then," quoth _Father_, drawing of a chair afore the fire, "we may tarry as we be." _Walter_ sat him down in the chimney-corner; _Mother_, with her sewing, on the other side the fire; Aunt _Joyce_ in the place she best loveth, in the window. Cousin _Bess_ and _Mynheer_ were gone on their occasions. _Ned_ and we three maids were in divers parts of the chamber; _Ned_ carving of a wooden boat for _Anstace_ her little lad, and we at our sewing. "Wilt tell me, _Wat_," saith _Father_, "what years thou hast?" "Why, Sir," quoth he, "I reckon you know that something better than I; but I have alway been given to wit that the year of my birth was Mdlvii." [1557.] "The which, sith thou wert born in _July_, makes thee now of two and twenty years," _Father_ makes answer. "I believe so much, Sir," saith _Walter_, that looked somewhat diverted at this beginning. "And thy wage at this time, from my Lord of _Oxenford_, is sixteen pound by the year?" [Note 1.] "It is so, Sir," quoth _Wat_. "And what reckonest thy costs to be?" "In good sooth, Sir, I have not reckoned," saith he. "Go to--make a guess." _Wat_ did seem diseased thereat, and fiddled with his chain. At the last (_Father_ keeping silence) he saith, looking up, with a flush of his brow-- "To speak truth, Sir, I dare not."