attached to their amusements, rough and even
gross as they often were, and the improvement filtered down from palace
to cottage only very slowly.

The cutting of the two bride-cakes, as usual, was one of the most
interesting incidents. It was then, and long afterwards, customary to
insert three articles in a bride-cake, which were considered to foretell
the fortunes of the persons in whose possession they were found when the
cakes were cut up. The gold ring denoted speedy marriage; the silver
penny indicated future wealth; while the thimble infallibly doomed its
recipient to be an old maid. The division of Diana's cake revealed Sir
Reginald de Echingham in possession of the ring, evidently to his
satisfaction; while Olympias, with the reverse sensation, discovered in
her slice both the penny and the thimble. Clarice's cake proved even
more productive of mirth; for the thimble fell to the Countess, while
the Earl held up the silver penny, laughingly remarking that he was the
last person who ought to have had that, since he had already more of
them than he wanted. But the fun came to its apex when the ring was
discovered in the hand of Mistress Underdone, who indignantly asserted
that if a thousand gold rings were showered upon her from as many cakes
they would not induce her to marry again. She thought two husbands were
enough for any reasonable woman; and if not, she was too old now for
folly of that sort. Sir Lambert sent the company into convulsions of
laughter by clasping his hands on this announcement with a look of
pretended despair, upon which Mistress Underdone, justly indignant, gave
him such a box on the ear that he was occupied in rubbing it for the
next ten minutes, thereby increasing the merriment of the rest. Loudest
and brightest of all the laughers was Diana. She at least had not
broken her heart. Clarice, pale and silent in the corner, where she sat
and watched the rest, dimly wondered if Diana had any heart to break.

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Note 1. There were two divisions of "damsels" in the household of a
mediaeval princess, the _domicellae_ and the _domicellae camera_. The
former, who corresponded to the modern Maids of Honour, were young and
unmarried; the latter, the Ladies of the Bedchamber, were always married
women. Sufficient notice of this distinction has not been taken by
modern writers. Had it so been, the supposition long he