"Here
are roses, madam, that you are not to treat as you did those others."
She took them from him with a smile, and we went into the house
to find three fair large rooms, something bare of furnishing, but
clean and sweet, with here and there a bow pot of newly gathered
flowers, a dish of wardens on the table, and a cool air laden with
the fragrance of the pine blowing through the open window.
"This is your demesne," quoth the minister. "I have worthy Master
Bucke's own chamber upstairs. Ah, good man, I wish he may
quickly recover his strength and come back to his own, and so
relieve me of the burden of all this luxury. I, whom nature meant
for an eremite, have no business in kings' chambers such as these."
His devout faith in his own distaste for soft living and his longings
after a hermit's cell was an edifying spectacle. So was the evident
pride which he took in his domain, the complacence with which he
pointed out the shady, well-stocked garden, and the delight with
which he produced and set upon the table a huge pasty and a
flagon of wine.
"It is a fast day with me," he said. "I may neither eat nor drink until
the sun goes down. The flesh is a strong giant, very full of pride
and lust of living, and the spirit must needs keep watch and ward,
seizing every opportunity to mortify and deject its adversary.
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