XXXIX. All Adrift 335 XL. Homeward Bound 341 XLI. Lady Hamilton 351 XLII. The Desire of the Moth 360 XLIII. For the Star 370 XLIV. “Box it About” 379 XLV. The Little Rift 389 XLVI. The Music Mute 399 XLVII. The “Hamilton Arms” 408 XLVIII. Pressure 419 XLIX. Poor Emerald 429 L. Captain Bold 441 LI. Sir Marmaduke 448 LII. The Bowl on the Bias 458 LIII. Fair Fighting 466 LIV. Friends in Need 475 LV. Forewarned 486 LVI. Forearmed 494 LVII. An Addled Egg 503 LVIII. Horns and Hoofs 511 LIX. A Substitute 518 LX. Solace 529 CERISE _A TALE OF THE LAST CENTURY_ CHAPTER I THE DAISY-CHAIN In the gardens of Versailles, as everywhere else within the freezing influence of the _Grand Monarque_, nature herself seemed to accept the situation, and succumbed inevitably under the chain of order and courtly etiquette. The grass grew, indeed, and the Great Waters played, but the former was rigorously limited to certain mathematical patches, and permitted only to obtain an established length, while the latter threw their diamond showers against the sky with the regular and oppressive monotony of clockwork. The avenues stretched away straight and stiff like rows of lately-built houses; the shrubs stood hard and defiant as the white statues with which they alternated, and the very sunshine off the blinding gravel glared and scorched as if its duty were but to mark a march of dazzling hours on square stone dials for the kings of France. Down in Touraine the woods were sleeping, hushed, and peaceful in the glowing summer’s day, sighing, as it were, and stirring in their repose, while the breeze crept through their shadows, and quivered in their outskirts, ere it passed on to cool the peasant’s brow, toiling contented in his clearing, with blue home-spun garb, white teeth, and honest sunburnt face.