A similar process having been gone through for the half ox, for which Isel had to pay seventeen pence [Salted cow was much cheaper, being only 2 shillings each.]--a shameful price, as she assured her companions--the ladies next made their way to Drapers' Row. The draper, then and for some centuries later, was the manufacturer of cloth, not the retail dealer only: but he sold retail as well as wholesale. Isel found some cloth to her mind, but the price was not to her mind at all, being eighteen pence per ell. "Gramercy, man! wouldst thou ruin me?" she demanded. A second battle followed with the draper, from which Isel this time emerged victorious, having paid only 1 shilling 5 pence per ell. They then went to the clothier's, where she secured a cloak for a mark (13 shillings 4 pence) and capes for the girls at 6 shillings 8 pence each. At the shoemaker's she laid in her slippers for 6 pence per pair, with three pairs of boots at a shilling. The cheeses were dear, being a halfpenny each; the load of flour cost 14 pence, and of meal 2 shillings; the beans were 1 shilling 8 pence, the cabbage 1 shilling 2 pence, the herrings 2 shillings. The coffer came to 5 shillings, the nails to 2 shillings 4 pence. [Note 2.] Isel looked ruefully at her purse. "We must brew at home," she said, easily dismissing that item; "but how shall I do for the rugs?" Rugs were costly articles. There was no woollen manufacture in England, nor was there to be such for another hundred years. A thick, serviceable coverlet, such as Isel desired, was not to be bought much under two pounds. "We must do without them," she said, with a shake of her head. "Girls, you'll have to spread your cloaks on the bed. We must eat, but we needn't lie warm if we can't afford it." "Isel, have you de one pound? Look, here is one," said Agnes timidly, holding out her hand. "But you want that, my dear." "No, I can do widout. I will de gown up-mend dat I have now. Take you de money; I have left for de shoes and flannel." She did not add that the flannel would have to be cut down, as well as the new dress resigned. "And I can do very well without a hood," added Ermine quickly. "We must help Mother Isel all we can." "My dears, I don't half like taking it." "We have taken more from you," said Ermine. Thus urged, Isel somewhat reluctantly took the money, and bought one rug, for which she beat down the clothier to two marks and a half, and departed triumphant, this being her best bargain for the day. It was then in England, as it yet is in Eastern lands, an understood thing that all tradesmen asked extortionate prices, and must be offered less as a matter of course: a fact which helps to the comprehension of the Waldensian objection to trade as involving falsehood.