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By-and-by, feeling hiain, he beca at hih the open doorway He looked that way

and they fled giggling into the court; but in a ain, and the sound of their tittering drew his eyes anew to the door

It was the custom of the day for ladies of rank to wait on their

favourites at table; and he wondered if Madame ith them, and why

she did not coer the savour of the roasted gahts; and when prudence warned hi fast, he was in no mood to be critical

Perhaps--for somewhere in the house he heard a lute--Mada those whoht

betray him if they discovered him?

From that his h

which he had passed; but for a moment and no more A shudder, an ehts In the quiet of the

cool roo on the sunny, vine-clad court, with the tinkle of the

lute and the murmurous sound of women's voices in his ears, it was hard

to believe that the things froed were real It was

still more unpleasant, and as futile, to dwell on theht, the cause would rally,

bristling with pikes and snorting ar-horses, and the blood spilled