"You look as if you did," she said with a smile, glancing at his ankles.
"I see that you are an apprentice, and for that sort of gear you will have
to go to Paris; we deal in country garments."
"That will suit me well enough, madame. The fact is that, as you see, I am
an apprentice; but having been badly treated, and having in truth no
stomach for the frays and alarms in Paris (where the first man one meets
will strike one down, and if he slays you it matters not if he but shout
loud enough that he has killed an Orleanist), I have left my master, and
have no intention of returning as an apprentice. But I might be stopped
and questioned at every place I pass through on my way home did I travel
in this 'prentice dress, and I would, therefore, fain buy the attire of a
young peasant."
The woman glanced up and down the street.
"Come in," she said. "You know that it is against the law to give shelter
to a runaway apprentice, but there are such wild doings in Paris that for
my part I can see no harm in assisting anyone to escape, whether he be a
noble or an apprentice, and methinks from your speech that you are as like
to be the former as the latter. But," she went on, seeing that Guy was
about to speak, "tell me naught about it. My husband, who ought to be
here, is snoring upstairs, and I can sell what I will; therefore, look
round and take your choice of garments, and go into the parlour behind the
shop and don them quickly before anyone comes in.
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