"
"I can read my missal at any hour, father, but this is the first
time that I have seen young Saxon nobles. I thought there would
have been more difference between them and us. Their hair is fairer
and more golden and their eyes bluer, but their dress differs in
no way from our own." She spoke in a matter-of-fact and serious
air, as if it were a horse or a dog that she was commenting upon,
and both Beorn and Wulf smiled, while Guy laughed outright.
"It is little wonder that their attire is like ours, Agnes," he
said, "seeing that they were furnished with it by the duke's orders.
You do not suppose that after being tossed about on the sea and
well-nigh drowned in landing, and being made prisoners, and then
travelling through the country and sleeping in the woods, Beorn and
Wulf would arrive here with their garments new and spotless. That
would indeed have been a miracle."
"But, indeed," Beorn said, "our garments differ not greatly from
those we now have on, for Norman fashions are prevalent at King
Edward's court, and we had no choice but to conform to them. Your
language is always spoken there, and methinks that were you to visit
Westminster you would see but little difference between King Edward's
court and that of your own duke."
"And your sisters, do they too dress like us?"
"Queen Edith's ladies dress like her in Norman fashion, but away
from the court the attire is different and more simple.
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