pulling herself together, turned to the young squire on her right hand, and began to talk to him gently. Roland listened to her with the reverent adoration entertained for her by every man about the Castle; but his replies were a little inadequate, and presently Lenore was again sitting silent, her burning eyes staring straight in front of her, her white face, framed in its shining hair, looking very set, her white robes gleaming frostily in the candle-light, her whole bearing stiffly unapproachable. She was nervous and uneasy, and she longed intensely to escape to her own quiet room. But there was madame talking serenely on, apparently unconscious of the gluttony around her; there was Alixe the Scornful, merrily jesting with Anselm, who had forgotten his frowns and his Latin together. Here was a great company of varied people, variously making merry, among whom there was not one that could have understood or excused her displeasure with the scene. Therefore she was fain to sit on, disconsolate, enduring as best she might her weariness and her contempt. “En passant!” cried the Bishop, presently, “where is David le petit? Is the dwarf lying sick?” “Why, indeed, I do not know,” answered Eleanore, looking around her. “David! Is David not among us?” she cried. At this moment there was a commotion at one end of the room, and presently the table began to shake. Dishes and flagons clattered together, and a little ripple of laughter rose and flowed along from mouth to mouth, following the progress of David himself, who was darting rapidly down the table, picking his way easily between clumps of holly and tall candles, and dishes and plates and flagons, as he moved around toward Madame Eleanore and her little party. His costume added materially to the effect of his appearance, for he was dressed like an elf, in scarlet hose, pointed brown shoes, tight jerkin of brown slashed with red, and peaked, parti-colored cap. In this garb his tiny figure showed off straight and slender, and his ruddy face and glittering eyes gave him proper animation for the role he had chosen to play. Flying down the table till he came to a halt in front of madame and the Bishop, he jerked the cap from his head, whirled lightly round on his toes, twice or thrice, and then, with a quaint gesture of introduction, he sang, in a sing-song tone, these verses:— “From elf-land I— Gnome or troll— Leaped from the cave Whence dolmens roll Down from on high To the tumbling wave! “In darkness I live; In darkness I love. Yet there’s one thing To mortals I give. From treasure-trove Jewels I bring!”