"Verily, I might answer thee, of the Queen's Majesty," said I: "and if I be not in good company enough, search thou for better. Only, for pity's sake, Sister _Anstace_, do let me a-be." "Eh, I'll let thee be," saith she, and wagged her head and laughed. "But in good sooth, _Nell_, thou art a right queer body. And if it should please the Queen's Highness to wed with _Mounseer_ [Note 1], as 'tis thought of many it shall, then thou wilt be out of her company, and I shall be in. What shalt thou do then for company?" "Marry, I can content me with Aunt _Joyce_ and Cousin _Bess_," quoth I, "and none so bad neither." So at after that we gat to other discourse, and after a while, when _Milly_ came in with the childre, we all went down into the great chamber, where _Father_, and _Hal_, and _Mynheer_, were yet at their weighty debates. Cousin _Bess_ was sat in the window, a-sewing on some flannel: and Aunt _Joyce_, in the same window, but the other corner, was busied with tapestry-work, being a cushion that she is fashioning for a _Christmas_ gift for some dame that is her friend at _Minster Lovel_. 'Tis well-nigh done; and when it shall be finished, it shall go hence by old _Postlethwaite_ the carrier; for six weeks is not too much betwixt here and _Minster Lovel_. As we came in, I heard _Father_ to say-- "Truly, there is no end of the diverse fantasy of men's minds." And then he brought forth some _Latin_, which I conceived not: but whispering unto Aunt _Joyce_ (which is something learned in that tongue) to say what it were, she made answer, "So many men, so many minds." [_Quot homines, tot sententiae_.] "Ha!" saith _Mynheer_. "Was it not that which the Emperor _Charles_ did discover with his clocks and watches? He was very curious in clocks and watches--the Emperor _Charles_ the Fifth--you know?--and in his chamber at the Monastery of _San Yuste_ he had so many. And watching them each day, he found they went not all at one. The big clock was five minutes to twelve when the little watch was two minutes past. So he tried to make them at one: but they would not. No, no! the big clock and the little watch, they go their own way. Then said the Emperor, `Now I see something I saw not aforetime. I thought I could make these clocks go together, but no! Yet they are only the work of men like me. Ah, the foolish man to think that I could compel men to think all alike, who are the work of the great God.' You see?" "If His Majesty had seen it a bit sooner," quoth _Hal_, "there should have been spared some ill work both in _Spain_ and the Low Countries." _Mynheer_ saith, "Ah!" more than once, and wagged his head right sadly.