He had but called in at the White Swan for a draught of Frederika's famous stone ale, and so--well, he found himself somehow in the rear, and, all against his will, was dragged into the Lair of the White Wolf!" He looked at me quietly, without speaking, for a while.
"And you, Master Hugo, did you go thither to distinguish yourself by breaking up their child's folly, or, like the others, to taste the stone ale ?" It was a question I had not expected.

But it was best to be very plain with Master Gerard.
"I went," I replied, "along with Michael Texel, because he asked me.

I knew not in the least what I was to see, but I was ready for anything." "And you acquitted yourself on the whole extremely well," he nodded; "so at least they are all very ready to say, hoping, I doubt not, for your good offices with the Duke when it comes to their turn.

You flouted them right manfully and defied their mystery, they told me." At this moment I became conscious that a door opposite me was open and the curtain drawn a little way back.

There, in the half-light, I saw Mistress Ysolinde listening.