welcome. The daughter of the devil welcomes her brother."

"Silence, old hag," cried De Vac. "Is it not enough that you leech me of

good marks of such a quantity that you may ever after wear mantles of

villosa and feast on simnel bread and malmsey, that you must needs burden

me still further with the affliction of thy vile tongue ?

"Hast thou the clothes ready bundled and the key, also, to this gate to

perdition ? And the room: didst set to rights the furnishings I had

delivered here, and sweep the century-old accumulation of filth and cobwebs

from the floor and rafters ? Why, the very air reeked of the dead Romans

who builded London twelve hundred years ago. Methinks, too, from the

stink, they must have been Roman swineherd who habited this sty with their

herds, an' I venture that thou, old sow, hast never touched broom to the

place for fear of disturbing the ancient relics of thy kin."

"Cease thy babbling, Lord Satan," cried the woman. "I would rather hear

thy money talk than thou, for though it come accursed and tainted from thy

rogue hand, yet it speaks with the same sweet and commanding voice as it

were fresh from the coffers of the holy church.

"The bundle is ready," she continued, closing the door after De Vac, who

had now entered, "and here be the key; but first let us have a payment. I

know not what thy foul work may be, but foul it is I know from the secrecy

which you have demanded, an' I dare say there will be some who would pay

well to learn the whereabouts of the old woman and the child, thy sister

and her son you tell me they be, who you are so anxious to hide away in old

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