"
The king's sense of economy shivered at the sum; as if it had been a
wound.
"Pasques-Dieu!" he stammered. "So it should be at the price." Robin
Turgis remained unmoved: Tristan clinched the business. "Bring it,"
he said decisively, and as the landlord shambled away towards his
cellar, Tristan met the king's condemnatory frown squarely.
"I wear out my hands and feet in your service," lie said, "I want to
save my throat and stomach."
Louis made no answer and was mournfully silent until the obese
landlord returned with the much-vaunted vintage, which he set down
on the table with a brace of goblets. Louis fumbled with reluctant
fingers in his pouch, extracted the exact amount necessary for
payment and dropped it into the fat paw of Robin Turgis. But Robin
lingered and Louis looking at him in surprise met the admonishing
glare of Tristan. "Give him a penny for himself," Tristan whispered,
and the king, with an unwillingness he was at no pains to conceal,
added the demanded drink-money to the other coins, and eyed the
departing back of the landlord with well-defined aversion. "You are
generous with other people's pennies, friend," he snapped at his
companion, but Tristan, paying no heed to his querulousness, filled
the two cups with the clear golden liquid and thrust one of them
under the nose of the sulky monarch.
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