They will press thee hard and 'twill be hard to withstand their love-making, but I shall never have to mount and ride off with pistols in my holsters to bring back a man and make him marry thee, as Chris Crowell had to do for his youngest wench.

Thou wouldst never play the fool, I warrant--wouldst thou, Clo ?" She tossed her head and laughed like a young scornful devil, showing her white pearl teeth between her lips' scarlet.
"Not I," she said.

"There thou mayst trust me.

_I_ would not be found out." She played her part as triumphant beauty so successfully that the cleverest managing mother in the universe could not have bettered her position.

Gallants brawled for her; honest men fell at her feet; romantic swains wrote verses to her, praising her eyes, her delicate bosom, the carnation of her cheek, and the awful majesty of her mien.