This was even worse; for, being a lonely man, he had but one bed in the house, and that was his own.

And that he might have the more of my company, he came to bed too.
He was a good man--this Master Udal--for he prayed long with me at the bedside, and talked comfortingly to me about my home, and the snares of my city life.

But with his grave talk he would not let me rest.

Even when we lay in bed, and it was too dark to see his face, I felt his eye upon me still, and was fain to confess myself to him, like a Papist to his priest.

But when I told him tremblingly that I loved a maiden, he gave a grunt of displeasure and turned over on his side, and left me in peace.
And so that fair maiden, little as she knew it, rescued me that night from a great tribulation; and it were strange if, in gratitude, I did not dream of her.
Master Udal roused me betimes, and after reading again my master's letter, asked me, was I a horseman?
I said I could sit a horse with any 'prentice in Finsbury Fields, even at the water leap.