The princess coloured with complaisant vanity at these words, and,
drawing near the queen, looked silently at a collar of pearls, which
Elizabeth held.

"If I may adventure so to say," observed Alwyn, "pearls will mightily
beseem her highness's youthful bloom; and lo! here be some adornments
for the bodice or partelet, to sort with the collar; not," added the
goldsmith, bowing low, and looking down,--"not perchance displeasing
to her highness, in that they are wrought in the guise of the fleur de
lis--"

An impatient gesture in the queen, and a sudden cloud over the fair
brow of Margaret, instantly betokened to the shrewd trader that he had
committed some most unwelcome error in this last allusion to the
alliance with King Louis of France, which, according to rumour, the
Earl of Warwick had well-nigh brought to a successful negotiation; and
to convince him yet more of his mistake, the duchess said haughtily,
"Good fellow, be contented to display thy goods, and spare us thy
comments. As for thy hideous fleur de lis, an' thy master had no
better device, he would not long rest the king's jeweller."

"I have no heart for the pearls," said Margaret, abruptly; "they are
at best pale and sicklied. What hast thou of bolder ornament and more
dazzling lustrousness?"

"These emeralds, it is said, were once among the jewels of the great
House of Burgundy," observed Nicholas, slowly, and fixing his keen,
sagacious look on the royal purchasers.

"Of Burgundy!" exclaimed the queen.