Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon Read Online Free PDF Page B

intended to joke. A flatterer, she thought. She would have to watch out for his cozening ways.
    George finished his dinner and headed back to his stall. Now that Alice had gone he felt more puzzled than angry. Why had she refused his suit to her? She would not get a better one, and he knew how hard it was for her to live alone. Did she reject him only because his offer had more of commerce in it than of love? But he felt that great things could come from a marriage of their two stalls. He had never understood why poets and ballad-makers wrote and sang so much about love; he had been in love once, as a youth, and he hadn’t liked it. It had made him feel as if he were in the grip of a powerful illness, and since that time he had avoided most strong feeling the way his fellow Londoners avoided the plague.
    He would ask her again, he decided. Surely she would not be so self-willed as to refuse him a second time.
    A man waited by his stall. “How may I help you?” he asked.
    â€œYou should ask, rather, how it is that I may help you,” the man said. “I have something I think you will want.”
    â€œAnd what is that?”
    â€œYou wish to win a lady’s favor. What I have—”
    â€œHow do you know that?” George asked. Hearing his private life talked of in this manner threw him off balance, but his surprise quickly gave way to anger. “Who are you?”
    â€œMy name is Anthony Drury. How I learned your secrets is of no importance. I—”
    â€œIt is of importance to me. I won’t have men sniffing around my affairs, listening to conversations that don’t concern them.”
    â€œI don’t come by my information that way. Someday you may be allowed to know how I learned about your desires, but not today. What I have is a way to win her.”
    â€œHow?” George asked, interested in spite of himself.
    â€œAh,” Anthony said. “It’s not so easy. Surely you’ve seen the new play where a man makes a bargain with the devil. I am no devil, but like him I will not give away my wares for nothing.”
    â€œI don’t go to plays. And I will not traffic with the devil.”
    â€œGood. That shows a serious mind.”
    â€œAye, indeed I have a serious mind. And I am of a mind not to like what I am hearing. Talk of the devil, of information ill-gotten—”
    â€œNay, wait a moment. Think of your lady, yielding to you, eager to do your bidding. She has refused you once, but no longer. Whatever you command her to do will be done.”
    â€œThis smells of the spirit world.”
    â€œI’m not so foolish, my friend. What I offer you has a sound basis in the theory of medicine. I can make you up a potion that will put her completely under your sway.”
    â€œCan this be?”
    â€œCertainly. Each of us is influenced by the four humors, blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. And this influence extends not just to our bodies, but to our minds as well. An excess of some of the humors, a lack of others, and she will dance to any song you choose to play.”
    â€œAnd what do you want in return?”
    â€œIn return? Only a trifle. I would like you to discover what became of her son.”
    This must be Alice’s man in black, George thought, realizing it at that moment. He wore a doublet and hose of dark brown today, but like the man Alice spoke of he had the look of someone with an intense purpose about him. “Why?” he asked.
    â€œIt is not part of our bargain that you ask questions, nor that I answer them. Only that you tell me if you agree or no.”
    â€œI’ll have to consider it,” George said slowly. “Come back tomorrow for your answer.”
    â€œTomorrow, then. Good day.”
    George stood at his stall and watched him thoughtfully. Then the crowd moved between him and the strange man, and he turned back to his books.
    By evening he was still thinking about the offer. He