"Quite, my dear," said that matron, who had made an excellent supper. "We'll go back now, Mr. Gartney. Dear me, there's Mr. Thambits. How do you do? What is your character, Mr. Thambits?"
"I'm Richard C[oe]ur de Lion," answered Dolly, who looked very ill at ease in his armour, "and Jiddy is Blondel."
"Is he really?" said Britannia, poking Jiddy in the back with her trident to make him turn round. "Very nice. I saw Blondin on the tight-rope once."
"Not Blondin, but Blondel," explained Jiddy, meekly, "he was a harper, you know, and sang songs."
"I hope you don't carry your impersonation so far as that," said Mrs. Dills, spitefully.
"I've had singing lessons," began Blondel, indignantly, "and I sing----"
"You do, I've heard you," said Eustace, significantly, and then hurried his two ladies quickly back to their seats, being somewhat tired of Mrs. Dills' spiteful tongue and Britannia's ponderous conversation.
Having thus performed his duty, he went away to look for Otterburn, being anxious to know how that young man had sped in his wooing. Near the door, however, a man brushed roughly past him with a muttered apology, and Eustace, turning to see whom this ill-bred person could be, found himself face to face with Guy Errington. He was dressed as the Master of Ravenswood, and, in his sombre dress of dark velvet, his high riding boots of black Spanish leather, and his broad sombrero with its drooping white plume of feathers, looked remarkably handsome, though, as Mrs. Dills had remarked, "like a thundercloud in black velvet," such was the gloom of his face.
"How are you, Guy?" said his cousin, laying a detaining hand upon the young man's shoulder. "I've been looking for you everywhere."
"I've only been here half-an-hour," replied Errington listlessly. "Anything wrong?"