f the peacock,
this spot was Marmaduke's favourite haunt. It diverted him, poor youth,
to look out of the window upon the livelier world beyond. The place, it
is true, was ordinarily deserted, but still the spires and turrets of
London were always discernible,--and they were something.

Accordingly, in this embrasure stood Marmaduke, when one morning,
Sibyll, coming from her father's room, joined him.

"And what, Master Nevile," said Sibyll, with a malicious yet charming
smile, "what claimed thy meditations? Some misgiving as to the trimming
of thy tunic, or the length of thy shoon?"

"Nay," returned Marmaduke, gravely, "such thoughts, though not without
their importance in the mind of a gentleman, who would not that his
ignorance of court delicacies should commit him to the japes of his
equals, were not at that moment uppermost. I was thinking--"

"Of those mastiffs, quarrelling for a bone. Avow it."

"By our Lady, I saw them not, but now I look, they are brave dogs. Ha!
seest thou how gallantly each fronts the other, the hair bristling, the
eyes fixed, the tail on end, the fangs glistening? Now the lesser one
moves slowly round and round the bigger, who, mind you, Mistress
Sibyll, is no dullard, but moves, too, quick as thought, not to be
taken unawares. Ha! that is a brave spring! Heigh, dogs, Neigh! a good
sight!--it makes the blood warm! The little one hath him by the throat!"

"Alack," said Sibyll, turning away her eyes, "can you find pleasure in
seeing two poor brutes mangle each other for a bone?"

"By Saint Dunstan! doth it matter what may be the cause of quarrel, so
long as dog or man bears himself bravely, with a due sense of honour and
derring-do? See! the big one is up again. Ah, foul fall the butcher, who
drives them away! Those seely mechanics know not the joyaunce of fair
fighting to gentle and to hound. For a hound, mark you, hath nothing
mechanical in his nature. He is a gentleman all over,--brave against
equal and stranger, forbearing to the small and defenceless, true in
poverty and need where he loveth, stern and ruthless where he hateth,
and despising thieves, hildings, and the vulgar as much as e'er a gold
spur in King Edward's court! Oh, certes, your best gentleman is the best
hound!"

"You moralize to-day; and I know not how to gainsay you," returned
Sibyll, as the dogs, reluctantly beaten off, retired each from each,
snarling and reluctant, while a small black cur, that had hitherto sat