a comely chamber, seated in the sole chair the room
contained, to which was attached a foot-board that served as a
dais, while around her, on low stools, sat some spinning, others
broidering--some ten or twelve young maidens of good family, sent to
receive their nurturing under the high-born Katherine, [And strange
as it may seem to modern notions, the highest lady who received such
pensioners accepted a befitting salary for their board and education.]
while two other and somewhat elder virgins sat a little apart, but close
under the eye of the lady, practising the courtly game of "prime:" for
the diversion of cards was in its zenith of fashion under Edward IV.,
and even half a century later was considered one of the essential
accomplishments of a well-educated young lady. [So the Princess
Margaret, daughter of Henry VIL, at the age of fourteen, exhibits
her skill, in prime or trump, to her betrothed husband, James IV.
of Scotland; so, among the womanly arts of the unhappy Katherine of
Arragon, it is mentioned that she could play at "cards and dyce." (See
Strutt: Games and Pastimes, Hones' edition, p. 327.) The legislature
was very anxious to keep these games sacred to the aristocracy, and
very wroth with 'prentices and the vulgar for imitating the ruinous
amusements of their betters.] The exceeding stiffness, the solemn
silence of this female circle, but little accorded with the mood of
the graceful visitor. The demoiselles stirred not at his entrance, and
Katherine quietly motioned him to a seat at some distance.

"By your leave, fair lady," said Hastings, "I rebel against so distant
an exile from such sweet company;" and he moved the tabouret close to
the formidable chair of the presiding chieftainess.

Katherine smiled faintly, but not in displeasure.

"So gay a presence," she said, "must, I fear me, a little disturb these
learners."

Hastings glanced at the prim demureness written on each blooming visage,
and replied,--

"You wrong their ardour in such noble studies. I would wager that
nothing less than my entering your bower on horseback, with helm on
head and lance in rest, could provoke even a smile from one pair of
the twenty rosy lips round which, methinks, I behold Cupido hovering in
vain!"

The baroness bent her stately brows, and the twenty rosy lips were all
tightly pursed up, to prevent the indecorous exhibition which the wicked
courtier had provoked. But it would not do: one and all the twenty lip