It represented the sitter's head and shoulders in three-quarter face, showing his short hair, his shrewd heavy face, with its double chin, and the furred gown below.
Mr.Morris was ready for his master and opened the door to him.
"There are some letters come, Mr.Ralph, sir," he said.

"I have laid them on your table." Ralph nodded, slipped off his thin cloak into his servant's hands without speaking, laid down his cane and went upstairs.
The letters were very much what he expected, and dealt with cases on which he was engaged.

There was an entreaty from a country squire near Epping Forest, whose hounds had got into trouble with the King's foresters that he would intercede for him to Cromwell.

A begging letter from a monk who had been ejected from his monastery for repeated misconduct, and who represented himself as starving; Ralph lifted this to his nostrils and it smelt powerfully of spirits, and he laid it down again, smiling to himself.

A torrent of explanation from a schoolmaster who had been reported for speaking against the sacrament of the altar, calling the saints to witness that he was no follower of Fryth in such detestable heresy.