ady. Yet it goes hard with you that you should darken
one side, when with both open you can scarce tell a horse from a mule.
In truth, friend, I think that you step over the line of reason in this
matter."

"Sir Oliver Buttesthorn," said the little knight shortly, "I would have
you to understand that, blind as I am, I can yet see the path of honor
very clearly, and that that is the road upon which I do not crave
another man's guidance."

"By my soul," said Sir Oliver, "you are as tart as verjuice this
morning! If you are bent upon a quarrel with me I must leave you to your
humor and drop into the 'Tete d'Or' here, for I marked a varlet pass
the door who bare a smoking dish, which had, methought, a most excellent
smell."

"Nenny, nenny," cried his comrade, laying his hand upon his knee; "we
have known each other over long to fall out, Oliver, like two raw pages
at their first epreuves. You must come with me first to the prince, and
then back to the hostel; though sure I am that it would grieve his heart
that any gentle cavalier should turn from his board to a common tavern.
But is not that my Lord Delewar who waves to us? Ha! my fair lord, God
and Our Lady be with you! And there is Sir Robert Cheney. Good-morrow,
Robert! I am right glad to see you."

The two knights walked their horses abreast, while Alleyne and Ford,
with John Norbury, who was squire to Sir Oliver, kept some paces behind
them, a spear's-length in front of Black Simon and of the Winchester
guidon-bearer. Norbury, a lean, silent man, had been to those parts
before, and sat his horse with a rigid neck; but the two young squires
gazed eagerly to right or left, and plucked each other's sleeves to call
attention to the many strange things on every side of them.

"See to the brave stalls!" cried Alleyne. "See to the noble armor set
forth, and the costly taffeta--and oh, Ford, see to where the scrivener
sits with the pigments and the ink-horns, and the rolls of sheepskin as
white as the Beaulieu napery! Saw man ever the like before?"

"Nay, man, there are finer stalls in Cheapside," answered Ford, whose
father had taken him to London on occasion of one of the Smithfield
joustings. "I have seen a silversmith's booth there which would serve to
buy either side of this street. But mark these houses, Alleyne, how they
thrust forth upon the top. And see to the coats-of-arms at every window,
and banner or pensil on the roof."

"And the churches!" cried Alleyne