a quickness that boyhood alone can bring about. They
visited the armory, the chapel, the stables, the great hall, the Painted
Chamber, the guard-house, the mess-room, and even the scullery and the
kitchen, with its great range of boilers and furnaces and ovens. Last of
all Myles's new friend introduced him to the armor-smithy.

"My Lord hath sent a piece of Milan armor thither to be repaired," said
he. "Belike thou would like to see it."

"Aye," said Myles, eagerly, "that would I."

The smith was a gruff, good-natured fellow, and showed the piece of
armor to Myles readily and willingly enough. It was a beautiful bascinet
of inlaid workmanship, and was edged with a rim of gold. Myles scarcely
dared touch it; he gazed at it with an unconcealed delight that warmed
the smith's honest heart.

"I have another piece of Milan here," said he. "Did I ever show thee my
dagger, Master Gascoyne?"

"Nay," said the squire.

The smith unlocked a great oaken chest in the corner of the shop, lifted
the lid, and brought thence a beautiful dagger with the handle of ebony
and silver-gilt, and a sheath of Spanish leather, embossed and gilt.
The keen, well-tempered blade was beautifully engraved and inlaid
with niello-work, representing a group of figures in a then popular
subject--the dance of Death. It was a weapon at once unique and
beautiful, and even Gascoyne showed an admiration scarcely less keen
than Myles's openly-expressed delight.

"To whom doth it belong?" said he, trying the point upon his thumb nail.

"There," said the smith, "is the jest of the whole, for it belongeth
to me. Sir William Beauclerk bade me order the weapon through Master
Gildersworthy, of London town, and by the time it came hither, lo! he
had died, and so it fell to my hands. No one here payeth the price for
the trinket, and so I must e'en keep it myself, though I be but a poor
man."

"How much dost thou hold it for?" said Gascoyne.

"Seventeen shillings buyeth it," said the armorer, carelessly.

"Aye, aye," said Gascoyne, with a sigh; "so it is to be poor, and not be
able to have such things as one loveth and would fain possess. Seventeen
shillings is nigh as much by half again as all my yearly wage."

Then a sudden thought came to Myles, and as it came his cheeks glowed
as hot as fire "Master Gascoyne," said he, with gruff awkwardness,
"thou hast been a very good, true friend to me since I have come to this
place, and hast befriended me in all w