ortune-maker chose to turn. The place of peace, where every man was
arming, where citizens were handling steel with unfamiliar fingers,
and where a rover like himself could not hope to let his sword lie
idle. It was as he thought these thoughts that a turn of the road
brought him face to face with Harby Hall, and all the episodes of a
busy, bloody life seemed to dwindle into insignificance as he crossed
the moat and passed with John Thoroughgood through the guarded
portals and found himself once again in the shelter of the great
hall.

The great hall at Harby was justly celebrated in Oxfordshire and in
the neighboring counties as one of the loveliest examples of the rich
domestic architecture which adorned the age of Elizabeth. "That
prodigal bravery in building," which Camden commends, made no fairer
display than at Harby which had been designed by the great architect
Thorp. Of a Florentine favor externally, it was internally a
magnificent illustration of what Elizabethan decorators could do, and
the great hall gave the note to which the whole scheme was keyed. Its
wonderful mullioned windows looked out across the moat on the
terrace, and beyond the terrace on the park. Its walls of panelled
oak were splendid witnesses to the skill of great craftsmen. Its
carved roof was a marvel of art that had learned much in Italy and
had made it English with the hand of genius. Over the great fireplace
two armored figures guarded rigidly the glowing shield of the founder
of the house. Heroes of the house, heroines of the house, stared or
smiled from their canvases on the mortal shadows that flitted through
the great place till it should be their turn to swell the company of
the elect in frames of gold. At one end of the hall sprang the fair
staircase that was itself one of the greatest glories of Harby, with
its wonderful balustrade, on which, landing by landing, stood the
glorious carved figures of the famous angels of Harby.

III

MY LORD THE LADY

Between the topmost pair of carven angels a woman stood for a second
looking down upon the man below. She had come quite suddenly from a
door in the great gallery, and she paused for a moment on the topmost
stair to survey the stranger who had summoned her. The stranger for
his part stared up at the woman in an honest and immediate rapture.
He was not unused to comely women, seen afar or seen at close
quarters, but he felt very sure now that he had never seen a fair
woman