Thou mayest look as if thou
wert bursting with wisdom, if it please thee, but see that thou give no
enlightening word to thy followers."
"Ay, thou mayest lay the burden of all mishaps on me," returned Walter
Skinner, pettishly. "But I promise not that I will speak no word, if it
seemeth to me best to speak. It is not every one in the king's employ.
Not every one is out scouring the country for a lord's son. And if one
may not speak of his honors, why hath he them?"
"Honors!" exclaimed Richard Wood, with contempt. "There be few would
call such work as thine an honor. To skulk, to spy, to trap another to
his destruction, why, that is what most call knaves' work, and he who
doth it is despised. Yea, even though he do it for a king."
"Thy loss doth set but sourly on thy stomach, Richard Wood," said
Walter Skinner, stubbornly. "It is an honor to serve the king. Ay, even
though he be a bad one like this. And, I say, if one is not to speak of
honors, why hath he them?"
"For other people to see, varlet. What others _see_ of thy
_honors_, as thou callest them, they can mayhap endure.
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