The Well at the Worlds End | Page 7

place, full of fair things and marvellous adventures.
So he rode till he came into the town when the fair morning was still
young, the first mass over, and maids gathered about the fountain
amidst the market-place, and two or three dames sitting under the
buttercross. Ralph rode straight up to the house of a man whom he
knew, and had often given him guesting there, and he himself was not
seldom seen in the High House of Upmeads. This man was a merchant,
who went and came betwixt men's houses, and bought and sold many
things needful and pleasant to folk, and King Peter dealt with him
much and often. Now he stood in the door of his house, which was new
and goodly, sniffing the sweet scents which the morning wind bore into
the town; he was clad in a goodly long gown of grey welted with silver,
of thin cloth meet for the summer-tide: for little he wrought with his
hands, but much with his tongue; he was a man of forty summers,
ruddy-faced and black-bearded, and he was called Clement Chapman.
When he saw Ralph he smiled kindly on him, and came and held his
stirrup as he lighted down, and said: "Welcome, lord! Art thou come to
give me a message, and eat and drink in a poor huckster's house, and
thou armed so gallantly?"
Ralph laughed merrily, for he was hungry, and he said: "Yea, I will eat

and drink with thee and kiss my gossip, and go my ways."
Therewith the carle led him into the house; and if it were goodly
without, within it was better. For there was a fair chamber panelled
with wainscot well carven, and a cupboard of no sorry vessels of silver
and latten: the chairs and stools as fair as might be; no king's might be
better: the windows were glazed, and there were flowers and knots and
posies in them; and the bed was hung with goodly web from over sea
such as the soldan useth. Also, whereas the chapman's ware-bowers
were hard by the chamber, there was a pleasant mingled smell
therefrom floating about. The table was set with meat and drink and
vessel of pewter and earth, all fair and good; and thereby stood the
chapman's wife, a very goodly woman of two-score years, who had
held Ralph at the font when she was a slim damsel new wedded; for she
was come of no mean kindred of the Kingdom of Upmeads: her name
was Dame Katherine.
Now she kissed Ralph's cheek friendly, and said: "Welcome, gossip!
thou art here in good time to break thy fast; and we will give thee a trim
dinner thereafter, when thou hast been here and there in the town and
done thine errand; and then shalt thou drink a cup and sing me a song,
and so home again in the cool of the evening."
Ralph seemed a little troubled at her word, and he said: "Nay, gossip,
though I thank thee for all these good things as though I had them, yet
must I ride away south straightway after I have breakfasted, and said
one word to the goodman. Goodman, how call ye the next town
southward, and how far is it thither?"
Quoth Clement: "My son, what hast thou to do with riding south? As
thou wottest, going hence south ye must presently ride the hill-country;
and that is no safe journey for a lonely man, even if he be a doughty
knight like to thee, lord."
Said Ralph, reddening withal: "I have an errand that way."
"An errand of King Peter's or thine own?" said Clement.

"Of King Peter's, if ye must wot," said Ralph.
Clement were no chapman had he not seen that the lad was lying; so he
said:
"Fair lord, saving your worship, how would it be as to the speeding of
King Peter's errand, if I brought thee before our mayor, and swore the
peace against thee; so that I might keep thee in courteous prison till I
had sent to thy father of thy whereabouts?"
The young man turned red with anger; but ere he could speak Dame
Katherine said sharply: "Hold thy peace, Clement! What hast thou to
meddle or make in the matter? If our young lord hath will to ride out
and see the world, why should we let him? Yea, why should his father
let him, if it come to that? Take my word for it that my gossip shall go
through the world and come back to those that love him, as goodly as
he went forth. And hold! here is for a token thereof."
Therewith she went to an ark that stood in the corner, and groped in the
till thereof and brought out a