maybe Kit Smallbones, the head smith."

"What will Smallbones think of the new prentice!" said one of the
other men.

"Prentice! 'Tis plain enough what sort of prentice the youth is
like to be who beareth the name of a master with one only daughter."

An emphatic grunt was the only answer, while Ambrose pondered on the
good luck of some people, who had their futures cut out for them
with no trouble on their own part.

This day's ride was through more inhabited parts, and was esteemed
less perilous. They came in sight of the Thames at Lambeth, but
Master Headley, remembering how ill his beloved Poppet had brooked
the ferry, decided to keep to the south of the river by a causeway
across Lambeth marsh, which was just passable in high and dry
summers, and which conducted them to a raised road called Bankside,
where they looked across to the towers of Westminster, and the Abbey
in its beauty dawned on the imagination of Stephen and Ambrose. The
royal standard floated over the palace, whence Master Headley
perceived that the King was there, and augured that my Lord of
York's meine would not be far to seek. Then came broad green fields
with young corn growing, or hay waving for the scythe, the tents and
booths of May Fair, and the beautiful Market Cross in the midst of
the village of Charing, while the Strand, immediately opposite,
began to be fringed with great monasteries within their ample
gardens, with here and there a nobleman's castellated house and
terraced garden, with broad stone stairs leading to the Thames.