little daughter, he must be a brave lad, and would be more in place among
men and soldiers than in serving wares behind the counter of a fat city
tradesman.

"I serve behind no counter," Walter said indignantly. "I am an armourer,
and mayhap can use arms as well as make them."

There was a laugh among the men at the boy's sturdy self-assertion, and
then the man named Dikon said: "Come along, lad. I will take you to Dame
Vernon at once. She is expecting you; and, my faith, it would not be safe
to leave you standing here long, for I see you would shortly be engaged in
splitting the weasands of my comrades."

There was another roar of laughter from the men, and Walter, somewhat
abashed, followed his conductor into the house. Leading him through the
hall and along several corridors, whose spaciousness and splendour quite
overpowered the young apprentice, he handed him over to a waiting woman,
who ushered him into an apartment where Dame Vernon was reclining on a
couch. Her little daughter was sitting upon a low stool beside her, and
upon seeing Walter she leapt to her feet, clapping her hands.

"Oh! mother, this is the boy that rescued us out of the river."

The lady looked with some surprise at the lad. She had but a faint
remembrance of the events which occurred between the time when she received
a blow from the sword of one of her assailants and that when she found
herself on a couch in the abode of her kinsman; and when she had been told
that she had been saved by a city apprentice she had pictured to herself a
lad of a very different kind to him who now stood before her.