a
Bible and a pair of colours worked by their hands; and twenty-six young
maids, it was said, went away after it in love with him. He did not
prove himself very much of a hero in the field; but from his manner in
company one could never have guessed at that. He had all the bearing of
a prince, and all the charm of a boy with it.

My Cousin Tom said something when supper was ending about Dolly's skill
in music; and how she and her maid sang together.

"May we not hear it for ourselves?" asked the Duke.

"But you are wet, sir," said my Cousin Tom.

The Duke smiled.

"I shall not think of that, sir," he said, "if Mistress Dorothy will
sing to us."

Well; so it was settled. The maid was in the kitchen, and was presently
fetched; and she and Dolly sang together once or twice, though it was
now after eleven o'clock. They sang Mr. Wise's "Go, perjured man," I
remember, again; and then M. Grabu's "Song upon Peace." The Duke sat
still in the great chair, shading his eyes from the candlelight, and
watching my Cousin Dolly: and once, when my Cousin Tom broke in upon the
second song with something he had just thought of to say, he put him
aside with a gesture, very royal and commanding, and yet void of
offence, until the song was done.

"I beg your pardon, Mr. Jermyn," he said a moment afterwards, "but I
have never been so entranced. What was it that you wished to say?"

As Dolly came towards him he stood up.

"Mistress Dorothy," he said, "you have given us a great deal of
pleasure." And he said this with so much gravity and feeling that she
flushed. It was the first evident sign she had given that he had pleased
her.

"And I mean it," he went on, "when I say it is a pity you do not come to
town more often. Such singing as that should have a larger audience than
the two or three you have had to-night."

Dolly smiled at him.

"Thank you, sir," she said. "But I know my place better than that."

This was all a little bitter to me; for by this time a wild kind of
jealousy had risen again in me which I knew to be unreasonable, and yet
could not check. It was true that I myself took the greatest pains never
to forget my manners; but I knew very well that novelty has a
pleasantness all of its own; and the novelty of such company as this,
charged with the peculiar charm of the Duke's manner, must surely, I
thought, have its effect upon her.

"Well," said he, "I could spend all night in this chamber with such
music; but