"Mirrors for your toilette, my pretty madam; your head-
gear is something awry--pity, since it is so well fancied." The woman
stopped and bought a mirror.--"What d'ye lack?--a watch, Master
Sergeant--a watch that will go as long as a lawsuit, as steady and
true as your own eloquence?"
"Hold your peace, sir," answered the Knight of the Coif, who was
disturbed by Vin's address whilst in deep consultation with an eminent
attorney; "hold your peace! You are the loudest-tongued varlet betwixt
the Devil's Tavern and Guildhall."
"A watch," reiterated the undaunted Jenkin, "that shall not lose
thirteen minutes in a thirteen years' lawsuit.--He's out of hearing--A
watch with four wheels and a bar-movement--a watch that shall tell
you, Master Poet, how long the patience of the audience will endure
your next piece at the Black Bull." The bard laughed, and fumbled in
the pocket of his slops till he chased into a corner, and fairly
caught, a small piece of coin.
"Here is a tester to cherish thy wit, good boy," he said.
"Gramercy," said Vin; "at the next play of yours I will bring down a
set of roaring boys, that shall make all the critics in the pit, and
the gallants on the stage, civil, or else the curtain shall smoke for
it."
"Now, that I call mean," said Tunstall, "to take the poor rhymer's
money, who has so little left behind."
"You are an owl, once again," said Vincent; "if he has nothing left to
buy cheese and radishes, he will only dine a day the sooner with some
patron or some player, for that is his fate five days out of the
seven.
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