he derisively laughed. "Be sure I shall never grow too
much so. And have not the stars said I shall ne'er grow old?"

"Your stars are falser than yourself," tartly snapped the Duchess.

"Mayhap," said Nell, still gleeful; "but mark you this truth: I shall
reign queen of Love and Laughter while I live, and die with the first
wrinkle."

She was interrupted by his Majesty, who, unsuspecting, swaggered into
the room in buoyant spirits.

"The King!" exclaimed Nell, as she slyly glanced over her shoulder.

The King looked at one woman and then at the other in dismay and horror.

"Scylla and Charybdis!" he muttered, nervously, glancing about for means
of escape. "All my patron-saints protect me!"

Nell was by his side in an instant.

"Good even' to your Majesty," she roguishly exclaimed. "How can I ever
thank you, Sire, for inviting the Duchess to sup with me! I have been
eager to meet her ladyship."

"Ods-pitikins," he thought, "a loophole for me."

"Well,--you see--" he said, "a little surprise, Nelly,--a little
surprise--for me." The last two words were not audible to his hearers.
He looked at the beautiful rivals an instant, then ventured, "I hoped to
be in time to introduce you, ladies."

"Oh, your Majesty," asserted Nell, consolingly, "we are already quite
well acquainted. I knew her grace through her veil."

"No doubt on't," observed the King, knowingly.

"Yes, Sire," said the Duchess, haughtily, casting a frigid glance at
Nell, "I warrant we understand each other perfectly."

"Better and better," said Charles, with a sickly laugh.

His Majesty saw rocks and shoals ahead, and his wits could find no
channel of escape. He turned in dire distress upon Nell, who stood
aloof. She looked up into his face with the innocence of a babe in every
feature.

"Minx, this is your work!" he whispered.

"Yes, Sire!" she answered, mock-reprovingly, bending quite to the floor
as she courtesied low.

"'Yes, Sire.' Baggage!" he exclaimed good-naturedly despite himself.

As he turned away, praying Heaven to see him out of the difficulty, he
observed the landlord, who had just entered with bread and cups,
muttering some dubious invocations to himself. He clutched at this piece
of human stupidity--like a drowning man clutching at a straw: "Ah,
landlord, bring in what we live for; and haste ye, sirrah. The wine! The
wine!"

"It is ready, sir," obsequiously replied the landlord, who had just
sense enough in his dull cran