ld man teaching him the value of the throws, as he
proceeded, with many a curse and oath; and when he did not like a throw,
grinning with a look of such real fury, that the master of Mardykes
almost expected him to whip out his sword and prick him through as he
sat before him.

After some time spent at this play, in which guineas passed now this
way, now that, chucked across the intervening patch of grass, or rather
moss, that served them for a green cloth, the old man roared over his
shoulder,

"Drink;" and picking up a longstemmed conical glass which Sir Bale had
not observed before, he handed it over to the Baronet; and taking
another in his fingers, he held it up, while a very tall slim old man,
dressed in a white livery, with powdered hair and cadaverous face, which
seemed to run out nearly all into a long thin hooked nose, advanced with
a flask in each hand. Looking at the unwieldly old man, with his heavy
nose, powdered head, and all the bottle-green, crimson, and gold about
him, and the long slim serving man, with sharp beak, and white from head
to heel, standing by him, Sir Bale was forcibly reminded of the great
old macaw and the long and slender kite, whose colours they, after their
fashion, reproduced, with something, also indescribable, of the air and
character of the birds. Not standing on ceremony, the old fellow held up
his own glass first, which the white lackey filled from the flask, and
then he filled Sir Bale's glass.

It was a large glass, and might have held about half a pint; and the
liquor with which the servant filled it was something of the colour of
an opal, and circles of purple and gold seemed to be spreading
continually outward from the centre, and running inward from the rim,
and crossing one another, so as to form a beautiful rippling net-work.

"I drink to your better luck next time," said the old man, lifting his
glass high, and winking with one eye, and leering knowingly with the
other; "and you know what I mean."

Sir Bale put the liquor to his lips. Wine? Whatever it was, never had he
tasted so delicious a flavour. He drained it to the bottom, and placing
it on the grass beside him, and looking again at the old dicer, who was
also setting down his glass, he saw, for the first time, the graceful
figure of a young woman seated on the grass. She was dressed in deep
mourning, had a black hood carelessly over her head, and, strangely,
wore a black mask, such as are used at masquerade