Other purchasers came forward--several, of the castle knappen, and a
few peasant women who offered yarn or cheeses as equivalents for
money, but were told with some insolence to go and sell their goods,
and bring the coin.
After a time, the friar, finding his traffic slack, thought fit to
remove, with his two lay assistants, outside the chapel, and try the
effects of an out-of-door sermon. Hugh Sorel, who had been hitherto
rather diverted by the man's gestures and persuasions, now decided on
going out into the fair in quest of an escort for his daughter, but
as she saw Father Norbert and another monk ascending from the stairs
leading to the hermit's cell, she begged to be allowed to remain in
the church, where she was sure to be safe, instead of wandering about
with him in the fair.
He was glad to be unencumbered, though he thought her taste
unnatural; and, promising to return for her when he had found an
escort, he left her.
Father Norbert had come for the very purpose of hearing confessions,
and Christina's next hour was the most comfortable she had spent
since Ermentrude's death.
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