ppingly on Nelly's tongue. So
Betty made a deep courtesy, smiled, and answered:--

"Yes, my ladies, it shall be as spotless as a maid of honor's character.
It cost five shillings the ell."

"Is that the best you can do?" demanded Nelly, laughing despite herself
at Betty's reference to the maids of honor. "Never in all my life have
I eaten from anything cheaper than guinea linen, and I know I shall
choke--choke, I tell you! Odds fish! this is terrible!" Then turning
to Frances: "But it serves us right, duchess, for leaving the palace."

"Yes, your Highness," returned Frances. "But you insisted on coming to
the place."

Betty was almost taken off her feet! A princess and a duchess! So her
third courtesy was nearly to the floor, as she asked:--

"What will your Highness and your Grace have to eat?"

"A barrel of oysters, a lobster broiled--make it two lobsters--a dish of
raw turnips, with oil, vinegar, and pepper, a bottle of canary, a bit of
cheese, and a pot of tea. But Lord! I suppose you never heard of tea!
It's a new drink, child, recently brought from China."

"Yes, your Highness," answered Betty, very proud that the Old Swan could
furnish so new a beverage. "We have some excellent tea of my father's own
importation."

"Then fetch it, and in God's name, be quick about it! Doubtless you could
be quick enough in running after a man!" said Nelly.

"In running away from him if I wanted to catch him," answered Betty,
casting down her eyes demurely, as she courtesied and left to give the
order in the kitchen.

Nelly's love of fun brought trouble before the dinner was over.

When Betty left her guests, she went to her father in the tap-room and
told him that a princess and a duchess had honored his house, whereupon
Pickering began to swell with pride. As friends dropped in from time to
time, he informed them that a princess and a duchess were waiting for
their dinner in the small dining room, and followed up the extraordinary
announcement in each case by asking proudly:--

"Show me another tavern this side of Westminster that entertains guests
of like rank. If they were to drop into the Dog's Head, old Robbins would
_drop_ dead. And on what would he serve them? I would wager a jacobus to
a farthing that he hasn't a tablecloth of real linen in his house, and as
for forks, why, he never heard of them. Your fingers and a knife at the
Dog's Head! The Old Swan serves its guests of high rank with five
shilling linen