November sunshine lay on the floor, while merry November
motes danced in the yellow beams.

Johan, the player's boy, had said that Mistress Judith was no beauty;
but no one in all England would have agreed with that verdict had they
seen her lightly poised on the threshold of the old inn, the gray
plumes of her high crowned riding hat nodding somewhat familiarly to
the motes in the sunshine. Her gray velvet riding skirt was lifted
high enough to reveal her dainty riding boots; her hair, bright and
burnished as a fox's coat, fell in curls about her shoulders, and
mischief gleamed from her tawny eyes, even as mischief parted her red
lips over teeth as white as pearl. It almost seemed as though she were
about to cross the room on tiptoe, and yet she stopped full in the
doorway, sniffing the air with dainty nostrils, before she turned back
to meet her father, who followed close on her footsteps.

"Faugh!" she cried, shrugging her shoulders, holding a kerchief to her
nose. "Why, the place reeks of wine and musty ale. A pretty place, I
must say, for a lover's tryst."

"But, Judith, my love," remonstrated her father, "the place is of your
own choosing. You stated that 'twas here you'd meet your cousin
Lindley, and nowhere else. Surely you're not going to blame him if a
tavern reeks of a tavern's holdings."

"In truth, I fancy I'll blame my cousin Lindley for whatsoever I
choose to blame him," answered the girl, her small mouth seeming but a
scarlet line over her dainty chin, under her tilting nose. She was
still standing in the black frame of the doorway, her merry eyes
noting each detail of the room within, still excluding her father from
the place.

"I hope, Judith, my dear, as I've said a hundred times, that you've
not induced your cousin to meet you here merely that you may flout
him." The words evidently cost Master Ogilvie great effort. "For my
sake----"

"Flout him!" laughed the girl. "Flout my cousin Lindley!" Then her
voice grew suddenly serious. Turning, she put both hands caressingly
on her father's shoulders. "Let us pray Heaven, rather, that there be
no flouting on either side!" She bent her head slightly and kissed him
on either cheek. Then her serious mood fled as quickly as it had come.
"Though I'm in no way bound to give my reason for choosing a wayside
inn for this meeting with my cousin--you'll admit, sir, that I'm not
bound so to do? Well, I've no objection to telling you that I meet him
here so tha