The growing
interest he felt in the fair Puritan rendered him susceptible. The eyes
of the two young persons had met again more than once, and were not
quite so quickly withdrawn on either side as before; perhaps, because
Aveline was less alarmed by the young man's appearance, or more
attracted by it; and perhaps, on his part, because he had grown a little
bolder. We know not how this might be; but we _do_ know that the fair
Puritan had gradually advanced towards the front of the window, and was
now leaning slightly out of it, so that her charms of face and figure
were more fully revealed.
Meanwhile, the May-pole had been planted, and the first dance round it
concluded. At its close, Gillian, quitting her post of honour near the
tree, and leaving the morrice-dancers and mummers to resume their merry
rounds, unsanctioned by her sovereign presence, took a tambourine from
one of the minstrels, and proceeded to collect gratuities within it
intended for the hired performers in the ceremony. She was very
successful in her efforts, as the number of coins, soon visible within
the tambourine, showed. Not without blushing and some hesitation did the
May Queen approach Dick Taverner. The 'prentice made a pretence of
fumbling in his pouch in order to prolong the interview, which chance
had thus procured him; and after uttering all the complimentary phrases
he could muster, and looking a great deal more than he said, he wound up
his speech by declaring he would bestow a mark (and that was no slight
sum, for the highest coin yet given was a silver groat) upon the
minstrels, if they would play a lively dance for him, and she, the May
Queen, would grace him with her hand in it.
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