The shoeing of Stead Kenton's horse seemed a trivial matter beneath
the attention of such an orator; but he vouchsafed to bid his lad
drive in a few nails; and just as the task was commenced, there came
to the forge a lady in a camlet riding dress and black silk hood,
walking beside a stout horse, which a groom was leading with great
care, for it had evidently lost a shoe. And it had a saddle with a
pillion on which they had been riding double, after the usual fashion
of travelling for young and healthy gentlewomen in those days of bad
roads.
The lady, a quiet, self-possessed person, not in her first youth,
came forward, and in the first pause in the blacksmith's declamation,
begged that he would attend to her horse.
He gave a nod as if intending her to wait till Steadfast's work was
done, and went on. "And has it not been already brought about that
the man of blood hath--"
"So please you," interrupted the lady, "to shoe my horse at once. I
am on my way to Abbotsleigh, and my cousin, Mr. Norton, knows that my
business brooks no delay.
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