r which, I doubt
not, the good gentleman your grandfather will have prepared."

So saying, he vaulted on his horse, and with Rupert rode quietly
along the road to the Chace. The great door opened as they
approached, and four lackeys with torches came out. Colonel
Holliday himself came down the steps and assisted the earl to
alight, and led the way into the house.

They now entered the drawing room, where Mistress Dorothy was
seated. She arose and made a deep courtesy, in answer to the even
deeper bow with which the earl greeted her.

"My lord," she said, "welcome to Windthorpe Chace."

"Madam," the earl said, bowing over the hand she extended, until
his lips almost touched her fingers, "I am indeed indebted to the
fellows who thought to do me harm, in that they have been the means
of my making the acquaintance of a lady whose charms turned all
heads in London, and who left the court in gloom when she retired
to the country."

Nowadays, such a speech as this would be thought to savour of
mockery, but gentlemen two hundred years since ordinarily addressed
women in the language of high-flown compliment.

Mistress Holliday, despite her thirty-seven years, was still very
comely, and she smiled as she replied:

"My lord, ten years' absence from court has rendered me unused to
compliments, and I will not venture to engage in a war, even of
words, with so great a general."

Supper was now announced, and the earl offered his hand to lead
Mistress Dorothy to the dining hall.

The meal passed off quietly, the conversation turning entirely upon
country matters. The earl did full justice to the fare, which
consisted of a stuffed carp, fresh from the well-stocked ponds of
the Chace, a boar's head, and larded capon, the two latter dishes
being cold. With these were served tankards of Burgundy and of
sherries. Rupert, as was the custom of the younger members of
families, waited upon the honoured guest.

The meal over, Mistress Holliday rose. The earl offered her his
hand and led her to the door, where, with an exchange of
ceremonious salutes, she bade him goodnight.

Then the earl accompanied Colonel Holliday to the latter's room,
hung with rapiers, swords, and other arms. There ceremony was laid
aside, and the old cavalier and the brilliant general entered into
familiar talk, the former lighting a long pipe, of the kind known
at present as a "churchwarden."

The earl told Colonel Holliday of the discovery that had bee