Alners and Samitelle.
“And there’s many a deed I could wish undone, though the law might not
be broke;
And there’s many a word, now I come to think, that I wish I had not
spoke.”
The mercer’s stock, spread out upon the benches of the hall, was a sight at once gay and magnificent. Cloth of gold, diaper, baldekin, velvet, tissue, samite, satin, tartaryn, samitelle, sarcenet, taffata, sindon, cendall, say—all of them varieties of silken stuffs—ribbons of silk, satin, velvet, silver, and gold, were heaped together in brilliant and bewildering confusion of beautiful colours. Lady Foljambe, Mrs Margaret, Marabel, and Agatha, were all looking on.
“What price is that by the yard?” inquired Lady Foljambe, touching a piece of superb Cyprus baldekin, striped white, and crimson. Baldekin was an exceedingly rich silk, originally made at Constantinople: it was now manufactured in England also, but the “oversea” article was the more valuable, the baldekin of Cyprus holding first rank. Baldachino is derived from this word.
“Dame,” answered the mercer, “that is a Cyprus baldekin; it is eight pound the piece of three ells.”
Lady Foljambe resigned the costly beauty with a sigh.
“And this?” she asked, indicating a piece of soft blue.
“That is an oversea cloth, Dame, yet not principal (of first-class quality)—it is priced five pound the piece.”
Lady Foljambe’s gesture intimated that this was too much for her purse. “Hast any gold cloths of tissue, not over three pound the piece?”
“That have I, Dame,” answered the mercer, displaying a pretty pale green, a dark red, and one of the favourite yellowish-brown shade known as tawny.