Part 14 (1/2)

Lady Foljambe's gesture intimated that this was too much for her purse.

”Hast any gold cloths of tissue, not over three pound the piece?”

”That have I, Dame,” answered the mercer, displaying a pretty pale green, a dark red, and one of the favourite yellowish-brown shade known as tawny.

Lady Foljambe looked discontented; the beautiful baldekins first seen had eclipsed the modest attractions of their less showy a.s.sociates.

”Nay, I pa.s.s not [do not care] for those,” said she. ”Show me velvet.”

The mercer answered by dexterously draping an unoccupied form, first with a piece of rich purple, then one of tawny, then one of deep crimson, and lastly a bright blue.

”And what price be they?”

He touched each as he recounted the prices, beginning with the purple.

”Fifteen s.h.i.+llings the ell, Dame; a mark [13 s.h.i.+llings 4 pence]; fourteen s.h.i.+llings; half a mark. I have also a fair green at half a mark, a peach blossom at fourteen s.h.i.+llings, a grey at seven-and-sixpence, and a murrey [mulberry colour] at a mark.”

Lady Foljambe slightly shrugged her shoulders.

”Say a n.o.ble [6 s.h.i.+llings 8 pence] for the grey, and set it aside,” she said.

”Dame, I could not,” replied the mercer, firmly though respectfully.

”My goods be honest matter; they be such as they are set forth, and they have paid the King's dues.”

Like many other people, Lady Foljambe would have preferred smuggled goods, if they were cheaper than the honest article. Her conscience was very elastic about taxes. It was no great wonder that this spirit prevailed in days when the Crown could ruthlessly squeeze its subjects whenever it wanted extra money, as Henry the Third had done a hundred years before; and though his successors had not imitated his example, the memory of it remained as a horror and a suspicion. Dishonest people, whether they are kings or coal-heavers, always make a place more difficult to fill for those who come after them.

”Well! then set aside the blue,” said Lady Foljambe, with a slight pout.

”Margaret, what lackest thou?”

Mrs Margaret looked wistfully at the fourteen-s.h.i.+lling crimson, and then manfully chose the six-and-eightpenny green.

”Now let us see thy samitelles,” said her Ladys.h.i.+p.

Samitelle, as its name implies, was doubtless a commoner quality of the rich and precious samite, which ranked in costliness and beauty with baldekin and cloth of gold, and above satin and velvet. Samite was a silk material, of which no more is known than that it was very expensive, and had a glossy sheen, like satin. Some antiquaries have supposed it to be an old name for satin; but as several Wardrobe Rolls contain entries relating to both in immediate sequence, this supposition is untenable.

The mercer exhibited three pieces of samitelle.

”Perse, Dame, four marks the piece,” said he, holding up a very pale blue; ”ash-colour, thirty s.h.i.+llings; apple-bloom, forty s.h.i.+llings.”

”No,” said Lady Foljambe; ”I would have white.”

”Forty-five s.h.i.+llings the piece, Dame.”

”Hast no cheaper?”

”Not in white, Dame.”

”Well! lay it aside; likewise three ells of the red. I would have moreover a cendall of bean-flower colour, and a piece or twain of say-- murrey or sop-in-wine.”

Cendall was a very fine, thin silk fit for summer wear, resembling what is now called foulard; say was the coa.r.s.est and cheapest sort of silk, and was used for upholstery as well as clothing.

”I have a full fair bean-flower cendall, Dame, one s.h.i.+lling the ell; and a good sop-in-wine say at twopence.”