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"I am somewhat bewildered," said the king, glancing from Morella to Betty and from Margaret to Peter, for evidently the humour of the situation did not escape him. "What is the exact case that we have to try?"
So altogether the puckered frown soon left her smooth brow, and she was able to resume the knitting of a tie she was doing for her son, with a spirit more or less at rest, though she sighed now and then as she remembered Morella Winmarleigh could not be expected to wait forever and her cherished vision of perfectly behaved, vigorously healthy grandchildren was still a long way from being realized.
It happened to suit some other arrangements of hers to spend Whitsuntide at Beechleigh, so she consented to chaperon Morella Winmarleigh without asking for a list of the guests. Hector had never conformed to any special set; he went here, there, and everywhere, and was welcomed by all.
"You see," she continued, "beyond Morella, who is too absolutely unalluring and respectable to come to harm anywhere, and Miss Linwood, who only cares for bridge, there will hardly be another woman in the house who has not got a lover, and the atmosphere of those things is catching don't you think so?" "It is nature," said Colonel Lowerby.
The Marquis of Morella, from whom I hold this cure, told us that his ship had sunk, and that no one else was left alive, and, as the mist hid everything, we believed him. That is why we were not here before, for," he added significantly, "we are poor folk, to whom the saints send few wrecks." "How did they go to Granada, Father?" asked Castell. "On foot?"
Mother of Heaven! what do you mean?" "Mean?" she answered "I mean what I say. Surely" and she rose in indignation "you have never dared to try to play some new trick upon me?" "Trick!" muttered Morella. "What says the woman? Is all this a dream, or am I mad?" "A dream, I think. Yes, it must be a dream, since certainly it was to no madman that I was wed last night.
In the same manner you may make an excellent jelly for common use, of ripe fox grapes and the best brown sugar; mixing with the sugar before it goes on the fire, a little beaten white of egg; allowing two whites to three pounds of sugar. Tie them up closely, and keep them in a dry place. Morella cherries may be done in the same manner.
Half an hour later Margaret sat under the cool arcade of the marble court, and with her, Morella, while upon the further side of its splashing fountain and out of earshot, Betty and Inez walked to and fro in the shadow. "You sent for me, Marquis," said Margaret presently, "and, being your prisoner, I have come because I must. What is your pleasure with me?"
Do you accept his challenge?" "I would accept it readily enough, your Majesty," answered Morella in sullen tones, "since heretofore none have doubted my courage; but I must remember that I am" and he paused, then added "what your Majesties know me to be, a grandee of Spain, and something more, wherefore it is scarcely lawful for me to cross swords with a Jew-merchant's clerk, for that was this man's high rank and office in England."
It fell as lightning falls, swift, keen, dazzling the eyes of all who watched. Morella raised his arm to break the blow. In vain! The weapon that he held was shattered, the casque beneath was cloven, and, throwing his arms wide, he fell heavily to the ground and lay there moving feebly. For an instant there was silence, and in it a shrill woman's voice that cried: "The Falcon has stooped.
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