Men of condition do usually want a
belt in the course."
Whereunto said Master Silas, -
"Men out of condition are quite as liable to lack it, methinks."
"Silas! Silas!" replied the knight, impatiently, "prithee keep to
thy divinity, thy strong hold upon Zion; thence none that faces thee
can draw thee without being bitten to the bone. Leave poetry to
me."
"With all my heart," quoth Master Silas, "I will never ask a belt
from her, until I see she can afford to give a shirt. She has
promised a belt, indeed,--not one, however, that doth much improve
the wind,--to this lad here, and will keep her word; but she was
forced to borrow the pattern from a Carthusian friar, and somehow it
slips above the shoulder."
"I am by no means sure of that," quoth Sir Thomas. "He shall have
fair play. He carrieth in his mind many valuable things, whereof it
hath pleased Providence to ordain him the depository. He hath laid
before us certain sprigs of poetry from Oxford, trim as pennyroyal,
and larger leaves of household divinity, the most mildly-savoured,--
pleasant in health and wholesome in sickness."
"I relish not such mutton-broth divinity," said Master Silas. "It
makes me sick in order to settle my stomach.
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