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Payne, Dutton

"Mistress Penwick"

Thus he
trained her carefully and with precision, and when Cantemir saw the
trap that held him where he was and gave Lord Cedric the upper-hand,
he fell into the spleen and played out of time, and Cedric flung
around and caught his spur in Dame Seymour's petticoats, and he swore
beneath his breath, and Katherine smiled at his discomfiture and her
own untutored grace, and she made bold and took a step or two on her
own dependence. Then there chimed eight from the old French clock of
black boule that sat upon a cabinet of tortoise-shell, and it stirred
the swains to think of donning 'broidered waist-coats and high-heeled
shoon preparatory to the prandial hour, when fresh game and old wine
would strengthen stomach and head; and they bowed low over tapering
fingers and cast a parting dart at female hearts, and climbed the
great oaken stairway to don their fine beaux' dress.
'Twas eleven o' the clock when the gay company again entered the
saloon; gentlemen in fresh curled periwigs and marvels of laces and
'broiderings.


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