"
So saying, he vaulted on his horse, and with Rupert rode quietly
along the road to the Chace. The great door opened as they
approached, and four lackeys with torches came out. Colonel
Holliday himself came down the steps and assisted the earl to
alight, and led the way into the house.
They now entered the drawing room, where Mistress Dorothy was
seated. She arose and made a deep courtesy, in answer to the even
deeper bow with which the earl greeted her.
"My lord," she said, "welcome to Windthorpe Chace."
"Madam," the earl said, bowing over the hand she extended, until
his lips almost touched her fingers, "I am indeed indebted to the
fellows who thought to do me harm, in that they have been the means
of my making the acquaintance of a lady whose charms turned all
heads in London, and who left the court in gloom when she retired
to the country."
Nowadays, such a speech as this would be thought to savour of
mockery, but gentlemen two hundred years since ordinarily addressed
women in the language of high-flown compliment.
Mistress Holliday, despite her thirty-seven years, was still very
comely, and she smiled as she replied:
"My lord, ten years' absence from court has rendered me unused to
compliments, and I will not venture to engage in a war, even of
words, with so great a general."
Supper was now announced, and the earl offered his hand to lead
Mistress Dorothy to the dining hall.
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