arce hold their own. There!" and she
roguishly capped the pyramid which burdened his lordship's knees with
the largest in her basket.

"I'll barter these back for my change, sweet Nell," he pleaded.

"What change?" quickly cried the merry imp of Satan.

"I gave you a golden guinea," answered his lordship, woefully.

"I gave you a golden dozen, my lord!" replied Nell, gleefully.

"Oranges, who will have my oranges?"

She was done with Buckingham and had turned about for other prey.

Hart could not allow the opportunity to escape without a shot at his
hated lordship.

"Fleeced," he whispered grimly over his lordship's shoulder, with a
merry chuckle.

Buckingham rose angrily.

"A plague on the wench and her dealings," he said. His oranges rolled
far and wide over the floor of the greenroom.

"You should be proud, my lord, to be robbed by so fair a hand,"
continued Hart, consolingly. "'Tis an honour, I assure you; we all envy
you."

Buckingham did not relish the consolation.

"'Tis an old saw, Master Hart," he replied: "'He laughs best who laughs
last.'"

As he spoke, Nell's orange-cry rang out again above the confusion and
the fun. She was still at it. Moll was finding vengeance and money,
indeed, though she dwelt upon her accumulating possessions through
eyelashes dim with tears.

"It's near your cue, Mistress Nell," cried out the watchful Dick at the
stage-door.

"Six oranges left; see me sell them, Moll," cried the unheeding vender.

"It's near your cue, Mistress Nell!" again shouted the call-boy, in
anxious tones.

"Marry, my cue will await my coming, pretty one," laughed Nell.

The boy was not so sure of that. "Oh, don't be late, Mistress Nell," he
pleaded. "I'll buy the oranges rather than have you make a stage-wait."

"Dear heart," replied Nell, touched by the lad's solicitude. "Keep your
pennies, Dick, and you and I will have a lark with them some fine day.
Six oranges, left; going--going--" She sprang into the throne-chair,
placed one of the smallest feet in England impudently on one of its arms
and proceeded to vend her remaining wares from on high, to the huge
satisfaction of her admirers.

The situation was growing serious. Nell was not to be trifled with. The
actors stood breathless. Hart grew wild as he realized the difficulty
and the fact that she was uncontrollable. King and Parliament, he well
knew, could not move her from her whimsical purpose, much less the
manager of the King