attention; and sundry of the ladies, convinced
by this time that he was flesh and blood, and no ghost, favored the
handsome young knight with divers glances, not at all displeased
or unadmiring. The queen sank back into her seat, keeping him still
transfixed with her darkly-splendid eyes; and whether she admired or
otherwise, no one could tell from her still, calm face. The prince
consort's feelings--for such there could be no doubt he was--were
involved in no such mystery; and he broke out into a hyena-like scream
of laughter, as he recognized, upon a second look, his young friend of
the Golden Crown.

"So you have come, have you?" he cried, thrusting his unlovely visage
over the table, till it almost touched sir Norman's. "You have come,
have you, after all I said?"

"Yes, sir I have come!" said Sir Norman, with a polite bow.

"Perhaps you don't know me, my dear young sir--your little friend, you
know, of the Golden Crown."

"Oh, I perfectly recognize you! My little friend," said Sir Norman, with
bland suavity, and unconsciously quoting Leoline, "once seen in not easy
to be-forgotten."

Upon this, his highness net up such another screech of mirth that it
quite woke an echo through the room; and all Sir Norman's friends looked
grave; for when his highness laughed, it was a very bad sign.

"My little friend will hurt himself," remarked Sir Norman, with an air
of solicitude, "if he indulges in his exuberant and gleeful spirits to
such an extent. Let me recommend you, as a well-wisher, to sit down and
compose yourself."

Instead of complying, however, the prince, who seemed blessed with a
lively sense of the ludicrous, was so struck with the extreme funniness
of the young man's speech, that he relaxed into another paroxysm of
levity, shriller and more unearthly, if possible, than any preceding
one, and which left him so exhausted, that he was forced to sink into
his chair and into silence through sheer fatigue. Seizing this, the
first opportunity, Miranda, with a glance of displeased dignity at
Caliban, immediately struck in:

"Who are you, sir, and by what right do you dare to come here?"

Her tone was neither very sweet nor suave; but it was much pleasanter
to be cross-examined by the owner of such a pretty face than by the ugly
little monster, for the moment gasping and extinguished; and Sir Norman
turned to her with alacrity, and a bow.

"Madame, I am Sir Norman Kingsley, very much at your service; and I b