"Ay," answered Philpotts, as if he had spoken, "it's my master I was thinking of. It's my very life I'd give to see him himself again. You did never see such a man as he was in his prime, Cupid, and that's not long since. My brother knew him when he was little more than a boy, and he says he was the bravest and the blithest lad in all the shire of Somerset. But he fell in love, Cupid. He fell in love, and that's how all a man's troubles begin." Cupid grinned so widely that all his shining row of white teeth showed against the blackness of his face like a row of candles. "Massa Romney he no tink so. See!" Following Cupid's eyes, Philpotts saw Master Romney standing on the terrace below the little white bedroom, and flinging roses against the window, from which Peggy was leaning and laughingly dodging the flowers as they struck. "Come down, mistress mine. Thou art late, and the company is half gathered already." "Go away, then, and do not break my window, and then leave me to thy mother's reproof." With the words she shut to the casement and flung down a rose which had landed on the sill. Romney stooped, picked it up, kissed it, and thrust it into the breast of his coat. Philpotts and Cupid looked at each other and burst into a shout of laughter. "Come, Cupid, we must in and help about the horses. Youth will be youth, and fools will fall in love while the world lasts." Within the house the girls were hastily donning their finery, shaking out their skirts, and making ready to flutter down to the foot of the stairway where their escorts awaited them, while such of the men as had ridden made use of the time to unloop the tails of their coats, prudently fastened back for their ride over forest trails. "Girls, have any of you seen this Maryland maid who is staying with Mistress Huntoon?" asked Mistress Nancy Lynch, as they came down the stair, buttoning their gloves. "Why," answered Polly Claiborne, "once I caught a glimpse of her standing on the terrace with Romney. I thought no great things of her. She was too brown, and but for a pretty trick of the eyes she had no claims." "Yet they say at the chapel of ease the parson can scarce go on with the service for gazing on her, and when in the litany he comes to 'Have mercy upon us' he looks straight at her in the Huntoon pew." "Well, there is one lucky thing, all the men are dead set against Maryland now. I dare say the poor thing will have scarce a partner at the ball." "You would not care to dance with a girl from Maryland, would you, Captain Snow?" said Mistress Polly, leaning over the railing to where the young officer stood smoothing back his cuffs. "Not while Virginia holds her own as she does to-night. You have promised me the first reel, remember. Faith! 'tis as fine a hall as ever I saw for dancing."