inging-birds;
and to-day matters have been a-much mended."

"Tis sudden, dame," said the Duke; "and 'tis something strange,
considering that I have never visited her, that the pretty trembler
should have been so soon reconciled to her fate."

"Ah, your Grace has such magic, that it communicates itself to your
very walls; as wholesome Scripture says, Exodus, first and seventh, 'It
cleaveth to the walls and the doorposts.'"

"You are too partial, Dame Dowlas," said the Duke of Buckingham.

"Not a word but truth," said the dame; "and I wish I may be an outcast
from the fold of the lambs, but I think this damsel's very frame has
changed since she was under your Grace's roof. Methinks she hath a
lighter form, a finer step, a more displayed ankle--I cannot tell, but
I think there is a change. But, lack-a-day, your Grace knows I am as old
as I am trusty, and that my eyes wax something uncertain."

"Especially when you wash them with a cup of canary, Dame Dowlas,"
answered the Duke, who was aware that temperance was not amongst the
cardinal virtues which were most familiar to the old lady's practice.

"Was it canary, your Grace said?--Was it indeed with canary, that your
Grace should have supposed me to have washed my eyes?" said the offended
matron. "I am sorry that your Grace should know me no better."

"I crave your pardon, dame," said the Duke, shaking aside, fastidiously,
the grasp which, in the earnestness of her exculpation, Madam Dowlas had
clutched upon his sleeve. "I crave your pardon. Your nearer approach has
convinced me of my erroneous imputation--I should have said nantz--not
canary."

So saying, he walked forward into the inner apartments, which were
fitted up with an air of voluptuous magnificence.

"The dame said true, however," said the proud deviser and proprietor of
the splendid mansion--"A country Phillis might well reconcile herself
to such a prison as this, even without a skilful bird-fancier to touch
a bird-call. But I wonder where she can be, this rural Phidele. Is it
possible she can have retreated, like a despairing commandant, into her
bedchamber, the very citadel of the place, without even an attempt to
defend the outworks?"

As he made this reflection, he passed through an antechamber and little
eating parlour, exquisitely furnished, and hung with excellent paintings
of the Venetian school.

Beyond these lay a withdrawing-room, fitted up in a style of still more
studied elegance. The w