"But all ladies are proud, mother! I warrant she is not prouder than another."
"May be not, Margaret; but yet that lady who sat at her side, looked not so high as the baroness. There was more sweetness in her smile, and gentleness in her voice."
"O yes, she spoke very sweetly, but she is not so handsome as the baron's lady."
"Margaret," replied Edith; "when you are as old as I, you will not look upon beauty as you do now;--a gentle heart and a pallid cheek will seem lovelier then, than brightness and bloom, if there be pride on the brow. But, Stephen, what said the steward when you gave him the gold?"
"Oh, he said mine was the best gift that had been brought yet. But come, mother, it is time we were at home."
The Lady de Boteler, Lady Anne Hammond, and the other ladies, were admiring the embroidered gloves, when De Boteler and Sir Robert Knowles entered the apartment.
"See, Roland," said the baroness, holding the gloves towards her husband; "see, what a pretty gift I have received since you left us!"
"They are indeed pretty," answered De Boteler; "and the fair hands that wrought them deserve praise. What think you, Sir Robert?"
"O, you must not ask Sir Robert for any fine compliment," interrupted the baroness. "They are not a _lady's_ gift--they were presented to me by the wife of one of your vassals."
"The wife of a vassal would not have taste enough to buy such as these; and there is but one about Winchcombe who could work so well. And, by my faith, I now remember that it was part of the tenure by which I some time since granted land, to present a pair of gloves.--Was it not a fair-looking damsel, one Stephen Holgrave's wife, that brought them?"
"I think she said her name was Holgrave," replied the lady in a cold tone. "But indeed, my lord baron, you seem to be wondrously well acquainted with the faces and the handywork of your vassals' wives!"
"Nay, Isabella," said the pale interesting lady of Sir Robert Knowles, "it is not strange that my Lord de Boteler should know the faces of those who were born on his land; and this young woman's skill could not fail to have procured her notice. But the handiness of her fingers has not made her vain. You know I am fond of reading faces, and I would answer that she is as modest and good as she is fair."