Page:A C Doyle - The White Company.djvu/162

134 'Good! You can read blazonry?'

'Indifferent well.'

'Then read this,' quoth Sir Nigel, pointing upwards to ore of the many quarterings which adorned the wall over the fireplace.

'Argent,' Alleyne answered, 'a fess azure charged with three lozenges dividing three mullets sable. Over all, on an escutcheon of the first, a jambe gules.'

'A jambe gules erased,' said Sir Nigel, shaking his head solemnly. 'Yet it is not amiss for a monk-bred man. I trust that you are lowly and serviceable?'

'I have served all my life, my lord.' 'Canst carve too?'

'I have carved two days a week for the brethren.'

'A model truly! Wilt make a squire of squires. But tell me, I pray canst curl hair?'

'No, my lord, but I could learn.'

'It is of import,' said he, 'for I love to keep my hair well ordered, seeing that the weight of my helmet for thirty years hath in some degree frayed it upon the top.' He pulled off his velvet cap of maintenance as he spoke, and displayed a pate which was as bald as an egg, and shone bravely in the firelight. 'You see,' said he, whisking round, and showing one little strip where a line of scattered hairs, like the last survivors in some fatal field, still barely held their own against the fate which had fallen upon their comrades; 'these locks need some little oiling and curling, for I doubt not that if you look slantwise at my head, when the light is good, you will yourself perceive that there are places where the hair is sparse.'

'It is for you also to bear the purse,' said the lady; 'for my sweet lord is of so free and gracious a temper that he would give it gaily to the first who asked alms of him. All these things, with some knowledge of venerie, and of the management of horse, hawk, and hound, with the grace and hardihood and courtesy which are proper to your age, will make you a fit squire for Sir Nigel Loring.'