The woman was old and ill-seeming, with a very hard face, and there was nothing about her to suggest that it was her nature to be generous. But the strange request was made very politely. It was preferred in a manner not unworthy of persons of condition, but in the shrewd eyes of Mistress Poll Plackett their appearance had a grave lack of anything of the kind.
The man was without a hat, his long fair hair was lank and undressed, his clothes, though of a good sort, were covered with mud, and his face might have had considerable beauty had it been less wild, less pitifully haggard. As for his companion, good Mistress Plackett was completely at a loss to say who and what she might be. In the first place it was hard to determine her sex, let alone her degree. The shape was all slenderness, all long-flanked delicacy; a profusion of charming curls escaped in clusters from under her velvet cap; the face, full of a rare and vivid beauty, was lit by two eyes that were like twin stars of gray light. Yet she too was covered with mud and she bore a look of wild distress. And far worse even than this, to Mistress Plackett’s horror the nether limbs were clad in a pair of leather breeches.
Had it not been for this unlucky garment their good looks and good manners might have melted the heart of a prudent housewife and fearless Christian. But such a strange style of dress was a sore tax upon her forbearance.
“I don’t know what to say, and that’s the truth,” said Mistress Plackett very doubtfully indeed. “I don’t like the looks o’ ye. Can ye pay for a little drink apiece?”
“By my faith no,” said Gervase, with perfect honesty. “We cannot do that, good dame. But give us even a very little draught of your delicious milk and we will bless the day that you were born.”
“I don’t doubt ye will,” said Mistress Plackett sourly, “if ye get a drink for nix.”
Further scrutiny followed hard upon this unblushing confession of absence of wherewithal. Moreover it seemed to confirm Mistress Plackett’s unfavorable opinion.
“Do you see any green in this eye, young man?” said she. “And do you suppose that Poll Plackett has passed three-score and five winters in a hard world, and the same amount o’ summers to match ’em, not to have better wisdom than to give away milk warm from the cow to a gallus pair o’ strolling Egyptians?”
“Don’t be hard-hearted, mother, I pray you,” said the young man in his beguiling speech. “If only you knew how hungry we are! Let us drink only a very little of your delicious milk, and God will reward you.”
“Maybe, young man,” said Mistress Plackett, “and maybe He will reward me doubly for the little ye take not. However, here is the pail. Have a little drink, you Egyptian, for I am bound to say you have a very good-looking face.”