She looked gravely at Stead, and said, "Young man, I am told that you
are well approved and trustworthy, and that my daughter suffers you
to walk home with this maiden, you being troth plight to her."
Stead assented.
"I will therefore not forbid it, trusting that if you be, as I hear,
a prudent youth, you may bring her to a more discreet and obedient
behaviour than hath been hers of late."
So saying, Mrs. Ayliffe joined company with the old Cavalier Colonel
and went on her way as Emlyn made that ugly face that Stead knew of
old, clenched her hand and muttered, "Old witch! She is a Puritan at
heart, after all! She is turning the house upside down, and my poor
mistress has not spirit to say 'tis her own, with the old woman and
the old hunks both against her! Why, she threatened to beat me
because, forsooth, the major's man was but giving me the time of day
on the stairs!"
"Was that what she meant?" asked Stead.
"Assuredly it was. Trying to set you against me, the spiteful old
make-bate, and no one knows how long she will be here, falling on the
poor lads if they do but sing a song in the hall after supper, as if
she were a very Muggletonian herself.
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