'Why,' the King said, 'we advance thee on the deserts of one that finds thee sweet, and is sweet to one doubly sweet to us, Henry of Windsor that speak sweet words to thee.' The lines on Udal's face drooped all a little downwards. 'Y'are reader in Latin to the Lady Mary,' the King said. 'I have little deserved in that office,' Udal answered; 'the lady reads Latin better than even I.' 'Why, you lie in that,' Henry said, ''a readeth well for she's my daughter; but not so well as thee.' Udal ducked his head; he was not minded to carry modesty further than in reason. 'The Lady Mary--the Lady Mary of England----' the King said weightily--and these last two words of his had a weight all their own, so that he added, 'of England' again, and then, 'will have little longer need of thee. She shall wed with a puissant Prince.' 'I hail, I felicitate, I bless the day I hear those words,' the Magister said. 'Therefore,' the King said--and his ears had caught the rustle of Margot's grey gown--'we will let thee no more be reader to that my daughter.' Margot came round the green silk curtains that were looped on the corner posts of the pavilion. When she saw the Magister her great, fair face became slowly of a fiery red; slowly and silently she fell, with motions as if bovine, to her knees at the Queen's side. Her gown was all grey, but it had roses of red and white silk round the upper edges of the square neck-place, and white lawn showed beneath her grey cap. 'We advance thee,' Henry said, 'to be Chancellier de la Royne, with an hundred pounds by the year from my purse. Do homage for thine office.' Udal fell upon one knee before Katharine, and dropping both cap and book, took her hand to raise to his lips. But Margot caught her hand when he had done with it and set upon it a huge pressure. 'But, Sir Chancellor,' the King said, 'it is evident that so grave an office must have a grave fulfiller. And, to ballast thee the better, the Queen of her graciousness hath found thee a weighty helpmeet. So that, before you shall touch the duties and emoluments of this charge you shall, and that even to-night, wed this Madam Margot that here kneels.' Udal's face had been of a coppery green pallor ever since he had heard the title of Chancellor. 'Eheu!' he said, 'this is the torture of Tantalus that might never drink.' In its turn the face of Margot Poins grew pale, pushed forward towards him; but her eyes appeared to blaze, for all they were a mild blue, and the Queen felt the pressure upon her hand grow so hard that it pained her. The King uttered the one word, 'Magister!' Udal's fingers picked at the fur of his moth-eaten gown. 'God be favourable to me,' he said. 'If it were anything but Chancellor!' The King grew more rigid. 'Body of God,' he said, 'will you wed with this maid?'