"In good sooth, so count I it," answered Maude, allowing her eyes to rove delightedly among all the marvels of the ante-chamber, "and the Lady Custance the very Queen of Faery." "The Lady Custance is made of flesh and blood, trust me. An' thou hadst had need to bear her to her bed, kicking and striving all the way, when she was somewhat lesser than now, thou shouldst be little tempted to count her immortal." "An' it like you, Mistress Alvena--" "Marry, Master Thurstan, it liketh me right well to see thee back without the peltry wherefor I sent thee! Where hast loitered, thou knave?" "Master Adam saith he is unfurnished at this time of the peltry you would have, Mistress, and without fox will serve your turn--" "Fox me no fox, as thou set store by thy golden locks!" said Alvena, advancing towards the luckless Thurstan in a threatening attitude, with the scissors open in her hand. "I'll fox him, and thee likewise. Go and bring me the four ells of peltry of beasts ermines, and that of the best, or thou shalt wake up to-morrow to find thy poll as clean as the end of thine ugsome [ugly] nose." Poor Thurstan, who was only a child of about ten years old, mistook Alvena's jesting for earnest, and began to sob. "But what can I, Mistress?" urged the terrified urchin. "Master Adam saith he hath never a nail thereof, never name an ell." "Alvena, trouble not the child," interposed Sybil. But Sybil's gentle intercession would have availed little if it had not been seconded by the unexpected appearance of the only person whom Alvena feared. "What is this?" inquired Dona Juana, in a tone of authority. Thurstan, with a relieved air, subsided into his recess, and Alvena, with a rather abashed one, began to explain that no ermine could be had for the trimming of the blue satin dress. "Then let it wait," decided the Mistress--for this was Juana's official title. "Alvena, set the child a-work, and watch that she goeth rightly thereabout. Sybil, sue thou me." The departure of Juana and Sybil, for which Maude was privately rather sorry, set Alvena's tongue again at liberty. She set Maude at work, on a long hem, which was not particularly interesting; and herself began to pin some trimming on a tunic of scarlet cloth. "Pray you, Mistress Alvena," asked Maude at length--wedging her question in among a quantity of small-talk--"hath the Lady Custance brethren or sustren?" "Sustren, not one; and trust me, child, an' thou knewest her as I do, thou shouldst say one of her were enough. But she hath brethren twain-- the Lord Edward, which is her elder, and the Lord Richard, her younger. The little Lord Richard is a sweet child as may lightly be seen; and dearly the Lady Custance loveth him. But as for the Lord Edward--an' he can do an ill turn, trust him for it." "And what like is my Lord our master?" asked Maude. Alvena laughed. "Sawest ever Ursula Drew bake bread, child?" "Oh ay!" sighed the ex-scullery-maid.