"Ladies and gentlemen!" said Sir Norman, turning gracefully to the

company; "I beg ten thousand pardons for this unwarrantable intrusion,

and promise you, upon my honor, never to do it again. I beg to assure

you that my coming here was altogether involuntary on my part, and

forced by circumstances over which I had no control; and I entreat you

will not mind me in the least, but go on with the proceeding, just as

you did before. Should you feel my presence here any restraint, I am

quite ready and willing to take my departure at any moment; and as

I before insinuated, will promise, on the honor of a gentleman and a

knight, never again to take the liberty of tumbling through the ceiling

down on your heads."

This reference to the ceiling seemed to explain the whole mystery; and

everybody looked up at the corner whence he came from, and saw the flag

that had been removed. As to his speech, everybody had listened to it

with the greatest of attention; and sundry of the ladies, convinced

by this time that he was flesh and blood, and no ghost, favored the

handsome young knight with divers glances, not at all displeased

or unadmiring. The queen sank back into her seat, keeping him still

transfixed with her darkly-splendid eyes; and whether she admired or

otherwise, no one could tell from her still, calm face. The prince

consort's feelings--for such there could be no doubt he was--were

involved in no such mystery; and he broke out into a hyena-like scream

of laughter, as he recognized, upon a second look, his young friend of

the Golden Crown.

"So you have come, have you?" he cried, thrusting his unlovely visage

over the table, till it almost touched sir Norman's. "You have come,

have you, after all I said?"

"Yes, sir I have come!" said Sir Norman, with a polite bow.

"Perhaps you don't know me, my dear young sir--your little friend, you

know, of the Golden Crown."

"Oh, I perfectly recognize you! My little friend," said Sir Norman, with

bland suavity, and unconsciously quoting Leoline, "once seen in not easy

to be-forgotten."

Upon this, his highness net up such another screech of mirth that it

quite woke an echo through the room; and all Sir Norman's friends looked

grave; for when his highness laughed, it was a very bad sign.

"My little friend will hurt himself," remarked Sir Norman, with an air

of solicitude, "if he indulges in his exuberant and gleeful spirits to

such an extent. Let me recommend you, as a well-wisher, to sit down and

compose yourself."

Instead of complying, however, the prince, who seemed blessed with a

lively sense of the ludicrous, wan so struck with the extreme funniness

of the young man's speech, that he relaxed into another paroxysm of

levity, shriller and more unearthly, if possible, than any preceding

one, and which left him so exhausted, that he was forced to sink into

his chair and into silence through sheer fatigue. Seizing this, the

first opportunity, Miranda, with a glance of displeased dignity st

Caliban, immediately struck in: "Who are you, sir, and by what right do you dare to come here?"




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