For the rest, I like thy advice, and will take it." "Good!" answered Nicholas.

"Hem! thou seemest to have got into a poor house,--a decayed gentleman, I wot, by the slovenly ruin!" "I would that were the worst," replied Marmaduke, solemnly, and under his breath; and therewith he repeated to Nicholas the adventure on the pastime-ground, the warnings of the timbrel-girls, and the "awsome" learning and strange pursuits of his host.

As for Sibyll, he was evidently inclined to attribute to glamour the reluctant admiration with which she had inspired him.

"For," said he, "though I deny not that the maid is passing fair, there be many with rosier cheeks, and taller by this hand!" Nicholas listened, at first, with the peculiar expression of shrewd sarcasm which mainly characterized his intelligent face, but his attention grew more earnest before Marmaduke had concluded.
"In regard to the maiden," said he, smiling and shaking his head, "it is not always the handsomest that win us the most,--while fair Meg went a maying, black Meg got to church; and I give thee more reasonable warning than thy timbrel-girls, when, in spite of thy cold language, I bid thee take care of thyself against her attractions; for, verily, my dear foster-brother, thou must mend and not mar thy fortune, by thy love matters; and keep thy heart whole for some fair one with marks in her gipsire, whom the earl may find out for thee.

Love and raw pease are two ill things in the porridge-pot.