e young dandy wore the full "petticoat breeches"
of the period, with a short doublet, a jaunty cloak hung from the
shoulders, and an abundance of costly lace ruffles adorned the neck
and wrists of the doublet, he wore at his side a short rapier, and
had a trick of laying his hand upon the hilt, as though it would
take very little provocation to make him draw it forth upon an
adversary.

His step was not altogether so steady as it might have been, as he
swaggered into his mother's presence. His handsome face was deeply
flushed. He was laughing boisterously; but there was that in his
aspect which made his sister turn away with a look of repulsion,
though his mother's glance rested on him with a look of admiring
pride that savoured of adoration. In her fond and foolish eyes he
was perfection, and the more he copied the vices and the follies of
the gallants about the person of the King, the prouder did his vain
and weak mother become of him.

"Ho! ho! ho! such a bit of fun!"

It is impossible to give Frederick Mason's words verbatim, as he
seldom opened his lips without an oath, and inter-larded his talk
with coarse jests in English and fragments of ribaldry in vile
French, till it would scarce be intelligible to the reader of
today.

"Such a prime bit of fun! Who would have thought that little Dorcas
next door would grow up such a marvelous pretty damsel! By my
troth, what a slap she did give me in return for my kiss!"

Gertrude suddenly turned upon her brother with flashing eyes.

"Think shame of yourself, Frederick! You disgrace your boasted
manhood. How dare you annoy with your coarse gallantry the daughter
of our father's oldest friend, and that too in the open streets!"

"How dare you speak so to your brother, girl?" cried Madam,
bristling up like an angry mother hen. "What call have you to chide
him? Is he answerable to you for his acts?"

Gertrude subsided into silence, for she could not answer back as
she would have liked. It was not for her to argue with her mother;
and Madam, having vanquished her daughter, turned upon her son.

"You must have a care how you vex our neighbours, for your father
would take it ill an he heard of it. Nay, I would not myself that
you mixed yourself up too much with them. They are honest good
folks enow, but scarce such as are fitting company for us. What of
this girl Dorcas? Is not she the one who is waiting maid to that
mad old witch woman in Allhallowes, Lady Scrope?"