Audrey

A score of ladies, one treading in the footsteps of another, should have

passed beneath the flashing swords. But there had thrust itself into their

company a plague spot, and the girl in green taffeta and a matron in

silver brocade, between whom stood the hateful presence, indignantly

stepped out of line and declined to dance. The fear of infection spreading

like wildfire, the ranks refused to close, and the company was thrown into

confusion. Suddenly the girl in green, by nature a leader of her kind,

walked away, with a toss of her head, from the huddle of those who were

uncertain what to do, and joined her friends among the spectators, who

received her with acclaim. The sound and her example were warranty enough

for the cohort she had quitted. A moment, and it was in virtuous retreat,

and the dance was broken up.

The gentlemen, who saw themselves summarily deserted, abruptly lowered

their swords. One laughed; another, flown with wine, gave utterance to

some coarse pleasantry; a third called to the musicians to stop the music.

Darden's Audrey stood alone, brave in her beautiful borrowed dress and the

color that could not leave her cheeks. But her lips had whitened, the

smile was gone, and her eyes were like those of a hunted deer. She looked

mutely about her: how could she understand, who trusted so completely, who

lived in a labyrinth without a clue, who had built her dream world so

securely that she had left no way of egress for herself? These were cruel

people! She was mad to get away, to tear off this strange dress, to fling

herself down in the darkness, in the woods, hiding her face against the

earth! But though she was only Audrey and so poor a thing, she had for her

portion a dignity and fineness of nature that was a stay to her steps.

Barbara, though not so poor and humble a maid, might have burst into

tears, and run crying from the room and the house; but to do that Audrey

would have been ashamed.

"It was you, Mr. Corbin, that laughed, I think?" said Haward. "To-morrow I

shall send to know the reason of your mirth. Mr. Everard, you will answer

to me for that pretty oath. Mr. Travis, there rests the lie that you

uttered just now: stoop and take it again." He flung his glove at Mr.

Travis's feet.

A great hubbub and exclamation arose. Mr. Travis lifted the glove with the

point of his rapier, and in a loud voice repeated the assertion which had

given umbrage to Mr. Haward of Fair View. That gentleman sprang unsteadily

forward, and the blades of the two crossed in dead earnest. A moment, and

the men were forced apart; but by this time the whole room was in

commotion. The musicians craned their necks over the gallery rail, a woman

screamed, and half a dozen gentlemen of years and authority started from

the crowd of witnesses to the affair and made toward the centre of the

room, with an eye to preventing further trouble. Where much wine had been

drunken and twenty rapiers were out, matters might go from bad to worse.