n earnest. Next time
she could speak to Guy alone, she told him he must not take all Charles
said literally.

'I thought he could hardly mean it: but why should he talk so?'

'I can't excuse him; I know it is very wrong, and at the expense of
truth, and it is very disagreeable of him--I wish he would not; but he
always does what he likes, and it is one of his amusements, so we must
bear with him, poor fellow.'

From that time Guy seemed to have no trouble in reining in his temper
in arguing with Charles, except once, when the lion was fairly roused by
something that sounded like a sneer about King Charles I.

His whole face changed, his hazel eye gleamed with light like an
eagle's, and he started up, exclaiming--

'You did not mean that?'

'Ask Strafford,' answered Charles, coolly, startled, but satisfied to
have found the vulnerable point.

'Ungenerous, unmanly,' said Guy, his voice low, but quivering with
indignation; 'ungenerous to reproach him with what he so bitterly
repented. Could not his penitence, could not his own blood'--but as he
spoke, the gleam of wrath faded, the flush deepened on the cheek, and he
left the room.

'Ha!' soliloquized Charles, 'I've done it! I could fancy his wrath
something terrific when it was once well up. I didn't know what was
coming next; but I believe he has got himself pretty well in hand. It is
playing with edge tools; and now I have been favoured with one flash of
the Morville eye, I'll let him alone; but it _ryled_ me to be treated as
something beneath his anger, like a woman or a child.'

In about ten minutes, Guy came back: 'I am sorry that I was hasty just
now,' said he.

'I did not know you had such personal feelings about King Charles.'

'If you would do me a kindness,' proceeded Guy, 'you would just say you
did not mean it. I know you do not, but if you would only say so.'

'I am glad you have the wit to see I have too much taste to be a
roundhead.'

'Thank you,' said Guy; 'I hope I shall know your jest from your earnest
another time. Only if you would oblige me, you would never jest again
about King Charles.'

His brow darkened into a stern, grave expression, so entirely in
earnest, that Charles, though making no answer, could not do otherwise
than feel compliance unavoidable. Charles had never been so entirely
conquered, yet, strange to say, he was not, as usual, rendered sullen.

At night, when Guy had taken him to his room, he paused and said--'You
a