t return ere long
if he has not left town."

And having said this, pointed to a little silken heap which lay
outstretched limp upon the floor. "'Tis poor Frisk, who has had some
strange spasm, and fell, striking his head. He hath been ailing for
days, and howled loudly but an hour ago. Take him away, poor beast."

CHAPTER XVII--Wherein his Grace of Osmonde's courier arrives from France

The stronghold of her security lay in the fact that her household so
stood in awe of her, and that this room, which was one of the richest and
most beautiful, though not the largest, in the mansion, all her servitors
had learned to regard as a sort of sacred place in which none dared to
set foot unless invited or commanded to enter. Within its four walls she
read and wrote in the morning hours, no servant entering unless summoned
by her; and the apartment seeming, as it were, a citadel, none approached
without previous parley. In the afternoon the doors were thrown open,
and she entertained there such visitors as came with less formality than
statelier assemblages demanded. When she went out of it this morning to
go to her chamber that her habit might be changed and her toilette made,
she glanced about her with a steady countenance.

"Until the babblers flock in to chatter of the modes and playhouses," she
said, "all will be as quiet as the grave. Then I must stand near, and
plan well, and be in such beauty and spirit that they will see naught but
me."

In the afternoon 'twas the fashion for those who had naught more serious
in their hands than the killing of time to pay visits to each other's
houses, and drinking dishes of tea, to dispose of their neighbours'
characters, discuss the playhouses, the latest fashions in furbelows or
commodes, and make love either lightly or with serious intent. One may
be sure that at my Lady Dunstanwolde's many dishes of Bohea were drunk,
and many ogling glances and much witticism exchanged. There was in these
days even a greater following about her than ever. A triumphant beauty
on the verge of becoming a great duchess is not like to be neglected by
her acquaintance, and thus her ladyship held assemblies both gay and
brilliantly varied, which were the delight of the fashionable triflers of
the day.

This afternoon they flocked in greater numbers than usual. The episode
of the breaking of Devil, the unexpected return of his Grace of Osmonde,
the preparations for the union, had giv