r go away with him," said the gate people.

"But I tell you I left him there, in the grand circle, with a lady; and,
what's more, in the dark walk, I have left a silver-hilted sword."

"Oh, my Lord, I'll go and tell him then," cried one of the porters, "if
you will wait."

Mr. Billings seated himself on a post near the gate, and there consented
to remain until the return of his messenger. The latter went straight
to the dark walk, and found the sword, sure enough. But, instead of
returning it to its owner this discourteous knight broke the trenchant
blade at the hilt; and flinging the steel away, pocketed the baser
silver metal, and lurked off by the private door consecrated to the
waiters and fiddlers.

In the meantime, Mr. Billings waited and waited. And what was the
conversation of his worthy parents inside the garden? I cannot say; but
one of the waiters declared that he had served the great foreign Count
with two bowls of rack-punch, and some biscuits, in No. 3: that in the
box with him were first a young gentleman, who went away, and a lady,
splendidly dressed and masked: that when the lady and his Lordship were
alone, she edged away to the further end of the table, and they had much
talk: that at last, when his Grace had pressed her very much, she took
off her mask and said, "Don't you know me now, Max?" that he cried out,
"My own Catherine, thou art more beautiful than ever!" and wanted to
kneel down and vow eternal love to her; but she begged him not to do so
in a place where all the world would see: that then his Highness paid,
and they left the gardens, the lady putting on her mask again.

When they issued from the gardens, "Ho! Joseph la Rose, my coach!"
shouted his Excellency, in rather a husky voice; and the men who had
been waiting came up with the carriage. A young gentleman, who was
dosing on one of the posts at the entry, woke up suddenly at the blaze
of the torches and the noise of the footmen. The Count gave his arm to
the lady in the mask, who slipped in; and he was whispering La Rose,
when the lad who had been sleeping hit his Excellency on the shoulder,
and said, "I say, Count, you can give ME a cast home too," and jumped
into the coach.

When Catherine saw her son, she threw herself into his arms, and kissed
him with a burst of hysterical tears; of which Mr. Billings was at a
loss to understand the meaning. The Count joined them, looking not a
little disconcerted; and the pair were landed a