s of his kind, and
had resigned himself to the evident fact that he was never to serve
in the household in waiting upon the Earl. I cannot say that it never
troubled him, but in time there came a compensation of which I shall
have presently to speak.

And then he had so much the more time to himself. The other lads were
sometimes occupied by their household duties when sports were afoot
in which they would liked to have taken part. Myles was always free
to enter into any matter of the kind after his daily exercise had been
performed at the pels, the butts, or the tilting-court.

But even though he was never called to do service in "my Lord's house,"
he was not long in gaining a sort of second-hand knowledge of all the
family. My Lady, a thin, sallow, faded dame, not yet past middle age,
but looking ten years older. The Lady Anne, the daughter of the house;
a tall, thin, dark-eyed, dark-haired, handsome young dame of twenty or
twenty-one years of age, hawk-nosed like her father, and silent, proud,
and haughty, Myles heard the squires say. Lady Alice, the Earl of
Mackworth's niece and ward, a great heiress in her own right, a
strikingly pretty black-eyed girl of fourteen or fifteen.

These composed the Earl's personal family; but besides them was Lord
George Beaumont, his Earl's brother, and him Myles soon came to know
better than any of the chief people of the castle excepting Sir James
Lee.

For since Myles's great battle in the armory, Lord George had taken a
laughing sort of liking to the lad, encouraging him at times to talk of
his adventures, and of his hopes and aspirations.

Perhaps the Earl's younger brother--who was himself somewhat a soldier
of fortune, having fought in Spain, France, and Germany--felt a certain
kinship in spirit with the adventurous youngster who had his unfriended
way to make in the world. However that might have been, Lord George was
very kind and friendly to the lad, and the willing service that Myles
rendered him reconciled him not a little to the Earl's obvious neglect.

Besides these of the more immediate family of the Earl were a number
of knights, ladies, and gentlemen, some of them cadets, some of them
retainers, of the house of Beaumont, for the princely nobles of those
days lived in state little less royal than royalty itself.

Most of the knights and gentlemen Myles soon came to know by sight,
meeting them in Lord George's apartments in the south wing of the great
house, an