Madge had now served the evening meal, put in her head to announce it, and Sibyll withdrew to summon her father.
"I trust he will not tarry too long, for I am sharp set!" muttered Marmaduke.

"What thinkest thou of the damozel ?" "Marry," answered Alwyn, thoughtfully, "I pity and marvel at her.

There is eno' in her to furnish forth twenty court beauties.

But what good can so much wit and cunning do to an honest maiden ?" "That is exactly my own thought," said Marmaduke; and both the young men sunk into silence, till Sibyll re-entered with her father.
To the surprise of Marmaduke, Nicholas Alwyn, whose less gallant manner he was inclined to ridicule, soon contrived to rouse their host from his lethargy, and to absorb all the notice of Sibyll; and the surprise was increased, when he saw that his friend appeared not unfamiliar with those abstruse and mystical sciences in which Adam was engaged.
"What!" said Adam, "you know, then, my deft and worthy friend Master Caxton! He hath seen notable things abroad--" "Which, he more than hints," said Nicholas, "will lower the value of those manuscripts this fair damozel has so couthly enriched; and that he hopes, ere long, to show the Englishers how to make fifty, a hundred,--nay even five hundred exemplars of the choicest book, in a much shorter time than a scribe would take in writing out two or three score pages in a single copy." "Verily," said Marmaduke, with a smile of compassion, "the poor man must be somewhat demented; for I opine that the value of such curiosities must be in their rarity; and who would care for a book, if five hundred others had precisely the same ?--allowing always, good Nicholas, for thy friend's vaunting and over-crowing.

Five hundred! By'r Lady, there would be scarcely five hundred fools in merry England to waste good nobles on spoilt rags, specially while bows and mail are so dear." "Young gentleman," said Adam, rebukingly, "meseemeth that thou wrongest our age and country, to the which, if we have but peace and freedom, I trust the birth of great discoveries is ordained.