"You have never journeyed to King's Lynn?" said the voice from the bed.
"There is little to see there but mudbars and fens and a noisy sea.There Idwelt when I was fifteen years of age, a maid hungry in soul and body.Iknew I was of the seed of Forester John and through him the child of a motley of ancient kings, but war and famine had stripped our house to the bone.And now I, the last of the stock, dwelt with a miserly mother's uncle who did shipwright's work for the foreign captains.The mirror told me that I was fair to look on, though ill-nourished, and my soul assured me that Ihad no fear.Therefore I had hope, but I ate my heart out waiting on fortune."She was looking at the monk with unseeing eyes, her head half turned towards him.
"Then came Willebald one March morning.I saw him walk up the jetty in a new red cloak, a personable man with a broad beard and a jolly laugh.Iknew him by repute as the luckiest of the Flemish venturers.In him I saw my fortune.That night he supped at my uncle's house and a week later he sought me in marriage.My uncle would have bargained, but I had become a grown woman and silenced him.With Willebald I did not chaffer, for I read his heart and knew that in a little he would be wax to me.So we were wed, and I took to him no dowry but a ring which came to me from my forebears, and a brain that gold does not buy."The monkey by her side broke into a chattering.