. She found the mercer's pack open, and the rich
stuffs hung all about on the forms, which had been pulled forward for
that purpose. The jeweller meanwhile sat in a corner, resting until he
was wanted. Time was not of much value in the Middle Ages.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

ALNERS AND SAMITELLE.

"And there's many a deed I could wish undone, though the law might not
be broke;
And there's many a word, now I come to think, that I wish I had not
spoke."

The mercer's stock, spread out upon the benches of the hall, was a sight
at once gay and magnificent. Cloth of gold, diaper, baldekin, velvet,
tissue, samite, satin, tartaryn, samitelle, sarcenet, taffata, sindon,
cendall, say--all of them varieties of silken stuffs--ribbons of silk,
satin, velvet, silver, and gold, were heaped together in brilliant and
bewildering confusion of beautiful colours. Lady Foljambe, Mrs
Margaret, Marabel, and Agatha, were all looking on.

"What price is that by the yard?" inquired Lady Foljambe, touching a
piece of superb Cyprus baldekin, striped white, and crimson. Baldekin
was an exceedingly rich silk, originally made at Constantinople: it was
now manufactured in England also, but the "oversea" article was the more
valuable, the baldekin of Cyprus holding first rank. Baldachino is
derived from this word.

"Dame," answered the mercer, "that is a Cyprus baldekin; it is eight
pound the piece of three ells."

Lady Foljambe resigned the costly beauty with a sigh.

"And this?" she asked, indicating a piece of soft blue.

"That is an oversea cloth, Dame, yet not principal [of first-class
quality]--it is priced five pound the piece."

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 associates.

"Nay, I pass 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 shillings the ell, D