Well then, had we a chapter of _Luke_, and a long prayer of _Father_: and I am sore afeared I missed a good ten minutes thereof, for I wis not well what happed, nor how I gat there, but assuredly I was a-dancing with my Lord of _Oxenford_, and the Queen's Majesty and my Lord _Dilston_ a-looking on, and Mistress _Jane_ as black as thunder, because I danced better than she. I reckon _Father's_ stopping woke me, and I said _Amen_ as well as any body. Then the Hundredth Psalm, _Nell_ a-playing on the virginals: and then (best of all) the blessing, and then with good-night all round, to bed. I reckon my nap at prayers had made me something wakeful, for I heard both _Nell_ and _Edith_ asleep afore me. SELWICK HALL, NOVEMBER YE III. Now have I read o'er every line my philosophical sister hath writ: and very nigh smothered me o' laughing at divers parts. The long discourses she putteth in, touching all manner of dreary matters! I warrant, you shall not see me to deal with the Queen's Majesty's injunctions touching the apparel of parsons, nor with the _Dutch Mennonites_, nor with philosophical questions touching folks' thoughts and characters, nor no such rubbish. I like sunlight, I do. Catch me a-setting down Master _Stuyvesant_ his dreary speeches! (I go not further, for then should it cost me sixpence: but Master _Stuyvesant_ hath no authority over me, so I may say what I will of him for two pence.) But it seemeth me, for all her soberness and her killing looks, that Mistress _Helena_ is something diverted with my speeches, else had she not put so many in. But I ought not to have said what I did, quotha, touching _Father's_ nose! Ought I not, forsooth? Mistress _Helena_, that shall cost you two pence, and I shall be fain to see the fine paid. (Eh, lack-a-day! but that shall cost me two pence! Dear heart, whatever was _Father_ a-thinking of? I shall be as clean ruined as the velvet doublet that _Ned_ dropped in the fish-pond!) It seemeth me _Father_ must have desired to make a good box for the poor. I would it had not been at my cost.