ame; a mark [13 shillings 4 pence];
fourteen shillings; half a mark. I have also a fair green at half
a mark, a peach blossom at fourteen shillings, a grey at
seven-and-sixpence, and a murrey [mulberry colour] at a mark."

Lady Foljambe slightly shrugged her shoulders.

"Say a noble [6 shillings 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-shilling crimson, and
then manfully chose the six-and-eightpenny green.

"Now let us see thy samitelles," said her Ladyship.

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 shillings; apple-bloom, forty shillings."

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

"Forty-five shillings 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 summe