“Indeed there are,” said Marie-Celeste, who had conscientiously tried not to interrupt, though there were a dozen lines along which she desired information.
“First, will you tell me if they ever let the ladies have any part in all the feasting and good times you have told about?”
“Oh, yes! There was a time when the wives of the knights were called Ladies of the Society of the Garter, and they used to be allowed to wear violet-colored or white cloth robes 'furred,' as one old book says, and embroidered with garters. The number of garters depended on their rank. But in the reign of King Henry the Eighth, for some reason that branch of the order was given up. By the way, Henry the Eighth is buried just yonder,” pointing a few feet away. “There's a royal vault right under those tiles, and Charles the First, whose head Cromwell cut off, is buried there too.”
“You don't mean it!” for Donald was all attention the second there was anything so thrilling as cut-off heads in the wind.
“Now, there's another thing I'd like to know,” said Marie-Celeste, “and that is, how long do they let a knight's banner hang there? because when a new knight is made his banner has to be put up somewhere.”
“Yes, of course; and so when a man dies they take away everything except the brass plate at the back of the stall that belonged to him, and that has his name on and all his titles.”
“I like the American way of not having any titles,” said Donald; “seems to me they're an awful fuss and bother. Of course you don't believe in them, Marie-Celeste.”
“Well, I don't exactly care for the titles and such a ridiculous lot of letters coming after one's name, but I should think it would be nice to know who your greatest grandfather was, and that he was a gentleman into the bargain, for that's what some of the titles mean, you know. They've come down from father to son for centuries.”
“I'd be satisfied just to know who my own father was,” said Donald with a sigh, and Marie-Celeste wished she had not said anything to bring that sad fact to mind.
“Did you say, Harold,” she asked, by way of quickly changing the subject, “that Edward the Third, who founded the Order of the Carter, built this chapel?”