Ha!said the Countess hastily;that rumour,then,is true,Janet.Surely,madam,answered Wayland;and I marvel it hath not reached your noble ladyship's ears.The Queen of England feasts with the noble Earl for a week during the Summer's Progress;and there are many who will tell you England will have a king,and England's Elizabeth--God save her!--a husband,ere the Progress be over.They lie like villains!said the Countess,bursting forth impatiently.
For God's sake,madam,consider,said Janet,trembling with apprehension;who would cumber themselves about pedlar's tidings?Yes,Janet!exclaimed the Countess;right,thou hast corrected me justly.Such reports,blighting the reputation of England's brightest and noblest peer,can only find currency amongst the mean,the abject,and the infamous!May I perish,lady,said Wayland Smith,observing that her violence directed itself towards him,if I have done anything to merit this strange passion!I have said but what many men say.By this time the Countess had recovered her composure,and endeavoured,alarmed by the anxious hints of Janet,to suppress all appearance of displeasure.I were loath,she said,good fellow,that our Queen should change the virgin style so dear to us her people--think not of it.And then,as if desirous to change the subject,she added,And what is this paste,so carefully put up in the silver box?as she examined the contents of a casket in which drugs and perfumes were contained in separate drawers.
It is a remedy,Madam,for a disorder of which I trust your ladyship will never have reason to complain.The amount of a small turkey-bean,swallowed daily for a week,fortifies the heart against those black vapours which arise from solitude,melancholy,unrequited affection,disappointed hope--Are you a fool,friend?said the Countess sharply;or do you think,because I have good-naturedly purchased your trumpery goods at your roguish prices,that you may put any gullery you will on me?Who ever heard that affections of the heart were cured by medicines given to the body?Under your honourable favour,said Wayland,I am an honest man,and I have sold my goods at an honest price.As to this most precious medicine,when I told its qualities,I asked you not to purchase it,so why should I lie to you?I say not it will cure a rooted affection of the mind,which only God and time can do;but I say that this restorative relieves the black vapours which are engendered in the body of that melancholy which broodeth on the mind.I have relieved many with it,both in court and city,and of late one Master Edmund Tressilian,a worshipful gentleman in Cornwall,who,on some slight received,it was told me,where he had set his affections,was brought into that state of melancholy which made his friends alarmed for his life.He paused,and the lady remained silent for some time,and then asked,with a voice which she strove in vain to render firm and indifferent in its tone,Is the gentleman you have mentioned perfectly recovered?Passably,madam,answered Wayland;he hath at least no bodily complaint.I will take some of the medicine,Janet,said the Countess.Itoo have sometimes that dark melancholy which overclouds the brain.You shall not do so,madam,said Janet;who shall answer that this fellow vends what is wholesome?I will myself warrant my good faith,said Wayland;and taking a part of the medicine,he swallowed it before them.The Countess now bought what remained,a step to which Janet,by further objections,only determined her the more obstinately.She even took the first dose upon the instant,and professed to feel her heart lightened and her spirits augmented--a consequence which,in all probability,existed only in her own imagination.The lady then piled the purchases she had made together,flung her purse to Janet,and desired her to compute the amount,and to pay the pedlar;while she herself,as if tired of the amusement she at first found in conversing with him,wished him good evening,and walked carelessly into the house,thus depriving Wayland of every opportunity to speak with her in private.He hastened,however,to attempt an explanation with Janet.
Maiden,he said,thou hast the face of one who should love her mistress.She hath much need of faithful service.And well deserves it at my hands,replied Janet;but what of that?Maiden,I am not altogether what I seem,said the pedlar,lowering his voice.
The less like to be an honest man,said Janet.
The more so,answered Wayland,since I am no pedlar.Get thee gone then instantly,or I will call for assistance,said Janet;my father must ere this be returned.Do not be so rash,said Wayland;you will do what you may repent of.I am one of your mistress's friends;and she had need of more,not that thou shouldst ruin those she hath.How shall I know that?said Janet.
Look me in the face,said Wayland Smith,and see if thou dost not read honesty in my looks.And in truth,though by no means handsome,there was in his physiognomy the sharp,keen expression of inventive genius and prompt intellect,which,joined to quick and brilliant eyes,a well-formed mouth,and an intelligent smile,often gives grace and interest to features which are both homely and irregular.
Janet looked at him with the sly simplicity of her sect,and replied,Notwithstanding thy boasted honesty,friend,and although I am not accustomed to read and pass judgment on such volumes as thou hast submitted to my perusal,I think I see in thy countenance something of the pedlar-something of the picaroon.On a small scale,perhaps,said Wayland Smith,laughing.But this evening,or to-morrow,will an old man come hither with thy father,who has the stealthy step of the cat,the shrewd and vindictive eye of the rat,the fawning wile of the spaniel,the determined snatch of the mastiff--of him beware,for your own sake and that of your distress.See you,fair Janet,he brings the venom of the aspic under the assumed innocence of the dove.