on the rack, or persuade me ever so by such-like loving persuasions, I would have none I did not choose!' 

 The two earls laughed. 

 'Well crowed, fair hen!' cried her brother, and Ralph regarded her with admiring eyes. 

 'There spoke the true daughter of William Fitzosbern, eh, Roger?' he exclaimed. 'Methinks if the Lady Emma had felt the Conqueror's heel as heavy as we, her blood would boil as easily. But in sooth, dear lady, the minstrels and romaunt writers fill damsels' heads with fine notions which we poor knights find it hard to carry out in the vulgar battle of everyday life. Thy hero William, our lord-king himself, rebelled when he was ordered to give up the chosen of his heart, the beautiful Matilda of Flanders; and—saints defend us!—it was the Holy Father himself that he disobeyed!' Here the earl crossed himself. 

 'Thou hast a noble example, Emma; make haste to follow it,' said her brother jestingly. 

 'Oh,' said Emma, 'your converse brings me to perplexity. Give me till the morning, and let me ponder on your words. They are sudden.' 

 Ralph raised her hand respectfully to his lips. 

 'We can do no less, dear lady,' he said. 

 

 CHAPTER III. 

 JEST AND EARNEST. 

 'That means,' said Ralph de Guader thoughtfully, when Emma had left the room, '"Let me consult my ghostly counsellor." Who is the Lady Emma's director, Fitzosbern? Is not Father Theodred of Crowland thine almoner?—he who was the pet of our East Anglian Bishop Æthelmær, and who was recommended to thee by thine English-loving uncle of Exeter?' 

 'That is so,' assented Hereford; but added impatiently, 'I prithee truce to thy plans and plottings. I am no moonstruck lover, and cannot subsist on air, however well such unsubstantial fare may suit thy humour. Here we have ridden a good thirty miles, and talked a candle to the sconce, and I vow to thee, I had liefer satisfy my hunger than my ambition. What boots a fat earldom to a man if he is to die of starvation before he gets it?' 

 De Guader glanced rather contemptuously at his companion, but prepared to follow him. 

 'Let me have speech with 

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