The master of the house kept his eyes fixed on the lips of the speaker till he had quite finished.
"Then a mere chance has brought your reverence hither?"
Henry's lips refused to say yes, he merely nodded with his head, as if, forsooth, it were not as great a sin to lie with the whole head as with the mouth alone!
"Then until your reverence has received your father's blessing, you cannot, I presume, taste of the earthly joys of wedded life?" inquired the master of the house, thereby betraying not only his acquaintance with ecclesiastical ordinances but the possession of the art of expressing himself politely.
"True, but such consent I hope to obtain this very day, for I am now in my father's house. My name is Henry Catsrider," and with that the young man rose from his seat.
But the lady, in a transport of conjugal loyalty and devotion, threw herself at the father's feet, seized his hand and kissed it.
She actually kissed the hand of the vihodar, the headsman. With glowing, cleaving lips she kissed the hand which had never been kissed.
CHAPTER IX.
In the course of which the stern father, in the hardness of his heart, chastizes his lost son, but finally grants forgiveness to the repentant prodigal.