ns disease, and her face almost colourless. Her features
are regular, and classical in their contour; her eyes are a clear grey--
honest, truthful eyes, that look straight at you; and her hair, which is
almost long enough, when let down, to touch her feet, is of that pale
golden colour so much celebrated in the Middle Ages, and so very rarely
to be seen now. Mistress Margery's attire comprises a black dress, so
stiff, partly from its own richness of material, and partly with
whalebone, that it is quite capable of standing upright without any
assistance from Mistress Margery's person. Its trimming consists of a
border of gris, or marten's fur; and over this black petticoat the young
lady wears a cote-hardie, or close-fitting jacket, also edged with gris.
Her head is not encumbered by the steeplecap which disfigures her
mother; instead of it she wears the beautiful "dove-cote," a net of
golden tissue, ornamented with pearls, within which her hair is
confined.

It may also be as well to notice here, that Mistress Margery is highly
accomplished. Of course she can play the lute, and sing, and work
elaborate and delicate embroidery, and compound savoury dishes; and
equally of course does she know any nobleman or gentleman by a glance at
his shield, and can tell you in a moment to whom belong the three lions
rampant sable, and who owns the bend engrailed argent on a field gules.
These are but the ordinary acquirements of a gentlewoman; but our
heroine knows more than this. Mistress Margery can read; and the
handmaidens furthermore whisper to each other, with profound admiration
of their young mistress's extraordinary knowledge, that Mistress Margery
can _write_. Dame Lovell cannot do either; but Sir Geoffrey, who is a
literary man, and possesses a library, has determined that his daughter
shall receive a first-rate education. Sir Geoffrey's library is a very
large one, for it consists of no less than forty-two volumes, five of
which are costly illuminated manuscripts, and consist of the Quest of
the Sangraal [see Note 1], the Travels of Sir John Maundeville, the
Chronicle of Matthew Paris, Saint Augustine's City of God, and a
Breviary. Dame Lovell has no Breviary, and as she could not read it if
she had, does not require one; but Margery, having obtained her father's
permission to do so, has employed her powers of writing and illuminating
in making an elaborate copy of his Breviary for her own use; and from an
illumina