"And keep them from everything jolly!" exclaimed Rhoda. "Now, that's a
shame! Wouldn't it be fun to bamboozle that creature? I protest I
should enjoy it!"

"O Mrs Rhoda! Mrs Rhoda!"

"I should, of all things, Mrs Dolly! But now, what were the King and
Queen like? Was she very beautiful?"

[Note: Charles the Second and Catherine of Braganza.]

"No," said Mrs Dorothy, "she was not. She had pretty feet, fine eyes,
and very lovely hair. 'Twas rich brown on the top of her head, and
descending downward it grew into jet black. For the rest, she was but
tolerable. In truth, her teeth wronged her by sticking too far out of
her mouth; but for that she would have been lovelier by much."

"Horrid!" said Rhoda. "I forget where she came from, Mrs Dolly?"

"She came from Portingale, my dear, being daughter to the King of that
country, and her name was Catherine."

"And what was the King like?"

"When he was little, my dear, his mother, Queen Mary, used to say he was
so ugly a baby that she was quite ashamed of him. He was
better-favoured when he grew a man; he had good eyes, but a large
Mouth."

[Note: Queen Mary was Henrietta Maria, always termed Queen Mary during
her own reign.]

"He was a black man, was he not?"

By which term Rhoda meant what we now call a dark man.

"Yes, very black and swarthy."

"Where did he commonly live?"

"Mostly at Whitehall or Saint James's. At times he went to Hampton
Court, and often, for a change of sir, to Newmarket; now and then to
Tunbridge Wells. He was but little at Windsor."

"Did you like him, Mrs Dorothy?"

Phoebe looked up, when no answer came. The expression of Mrs Dorothy's
face was a curious mixture of fear, repulsion, and yet amusement.

"No!" she said at length.

"Why not?" demanded Rhoda.

"Well, there were some that did," was the reply, in a rather constrained
tone; "and the one that he behaved the worst to loved him the best of
all."

"How droll!" said Rhoda. "And who were your friends, then, Mrs
Dorothy?"

"That depends, my dear, on what you mean by friends. If you mean them
that flattered me, and joked with me, and the like,--why, I had very
many; or if you mean them that would take some trouble to push me in the
world,--well, there were several of those; but if you mean such as are
only true friends, that would have cast one thought to my real welfare,
whether I should go to Heaven or Hell,--I had but one of that sort."

"And who was y