Page:Tales from Chaucer.djvu/243

 ; return, therefore, to your father's house, and strive to bear with an even heart this stroke of fortune.'

She answered him in a tone of patience that was a marvel to the whole assembly:—'My Lord, I know, and have always felt, that no comparison can be drawn between my poverty and your magnificence. At no time did I ever esteem myself higher in degree of worth than to be your chamber-woman: and in this palace, of which you exalted me to be the lady, I take heaven to witness, and am now glad I did so, that I never considered myself the mistress of it, but the dutiful minister to your worthiness: and this, above every other earthly creature, I shall ever continue to be. That in your graciousness you so long retained me in a state of honour and nobility, of which I was unworthy, I thank both God and you, and hope he may bountifully repay it you. I willingly return to my father, and with him will end my days. In that cot was I fostered from my tenderest childhood; there will I pass the remainder of my life a widow, clean in her conduct, and with an unupbraiding heart. And since I gave to