And presently a cripple in a beggar's garb, a dwarfish, filthy creature with matted hair, twitched his sleeve, and offered him a whetstone.
"Are you sharp, noble sir ?" he asked, with a leer.

"Are you sharp?
It's surprising how the edge goes on the bone.

A cut and thrust?
Well, every man to his taste.

But give me a broad butcher's knife and I'll ask no help, be it man, woman, or child!" A bystander, a lean man in rusty black, chuckled as he listened.
"But the woman or the child for choice, eh, Jehan ?" he said.

And he looked to Tignonville to join in the jest.
"Ay, give me a white throat for choice!" the cripple answered, with horrible zest.