Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE BALL Meanwhile Mistress Katherine sat before the fire in the tower nookery while Janet unpacked the luggage. " 'Twould not be fitting for Lord Cedric to have such a man within his house as guest!" " Neither has he, Lambkin; 'tis his Lordship himself." Her voice rang truth and Katherine turned dismayed,— " Nay, Janet, the man was a drunken fool! Surely, surely thou dost not mean thy sayings. He is not a fit person to be in so great a castle. Thou art shamming ! " " I mean every word ; 'tis my Lord en masque, for to-night there is to be a great and magnificent spectacle." " And what does that mean, Janet ? " " It means there is to be a masque ball, and my Lord Cedric is in his costume, and he does not look like that at all. We may be sure he appears quite the opposite when apparelled in his usual dress." " But his tongue, he cannot change that! " " Thou wilt have to wait and see for thyself,and fortune favours, for now thou wilt not have long to wait. I saw his wicked young eyes—too young for so old a man, as it appeared—directing enamoured darts upon thee." "But art thou not afraid of so oath-beladen tongue ? He is dreadfully profane! " " He has already seen his peril and will drop his oaths like jetsam and wilt come to thee with flotsamy oglings and tender nothings and bow and smirk; and thou wilt find thyself an old man's sweetheart." " Janet, can we not find some point of observation where we may look upon the maskers unseen?" "Thou art speaking my own mind. I will look about and find some seclusion that thou mayest look and sate thine eyes upon Royalty; and thou wilt gaze and gaze and make mental annotations, and to-morrow thou wilt begin to preen thy feathers preparatory to flying forth ; but first thou must lie down an...