"My daughter is not courting you any more than I am--a fair offer is no cause offend; only if you think that I will give in to her foolish notions of a convent, take it with you that I will never listen to them.

I love and honour the church," he said, crossing himself, "I pay her rights duly and cheerfully--tithes and alms, wine and wax, I pay them as justly, I say, as any man in Perth of my means doth--but I cannot afford the church my only and single ewe lamb that I have in the world.

Her mother was dear to me on earth, and is now an angel in Heaven.

Catharine is all I have to remind me of her I have lost; and if she goes to the cloister, it shall be when these old eyes are closed for ever, and not sooner.

But as for you, friend Gow, I pray you will act according to your own best liking, I want to force no wife on you, I promise you." "Nay, now you beat the iron twice over," said Henry.