I was not sure what to say
next to one or t'other, but seeing she was a stranger in a foreign
country, I thought it but right to speak cheerful to her; so I went back
again to the bonfires.
'My lady,' says I, as she crossed the hall, 'there would have been
fifty times as many; but for fear of the horses, and frightening your
ladyship, Jason and I forbid them, please your honour.'
With that she looked at me a little bewildered.
'Will I have a fire lighted in the state-room to-night?' was the next
question I put to her, but never a word she answered; so I concluded she
could not speak a word of English, and was from foreign parts. The short
and the long of it was, I couldn't tell what to make of her; so I left
her to herself, and went straight down to the servants' hall to learn
something for certain about her. Sir Kit's own man was tired, but the
groom set him a-talking at last, and we had it all out before ever I
closed my eyes that night. The bride might well be a great fortune--she
was a JEWISH by all accounts, who are famous for their great riches. I
had never seen any of that tribe or nation before, and could only gather
that she spoke a strange kind of English of her own, that she could not
abide pork or sausages, and went neither to church or mass.
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