Then she wrinkled her little snow-white forehead, and seemed weighing the matter very deliberately. "Well," she said, after she had appeared to consider at great length, "thou mayst have the first; but I will _not_ promise thee any more before the dance, and if I do like that one, mayhap I will give thee some others." I knew full well what that meant; so I said no more, but made up my mind to have more when the time did come round. And the time soon did come; for in those days of happiness and youth the sun scarce seemed to stay in the heavens for more than an hour at a time; so quickly did those days of dreams pass by. And yet, though it may sound like a contradiction, the sun seemed ever to be shining; for we had it in our hearts. Oh, had we but known the clouds that were to pass over,-- But there, I must draw the rein again, or I shall be telling the end of my story ere I shall have come unto it. So the days flew past like sunbeams, and the evening when the great ball was to take place at length arrived. Both Harleston and I had engaged the best tailor in London, and when we walked into the great audience hall that night there was not a soul in the place which could compete with us, for elegance of dress--except, perhaps, the Duke of Gloucester. And let me here put it down; that room contained all the best of fashion that English tailors could produce. The secret of our success lay in the fact that it was Gloucester's own tailor which did make our garments; he being not over busy whilst the Duke was absent in Scotland. As the King (for some reason then unknown to us) had not yet arrived, the ladies and gentlemen, after having been presented to the Queen, were standing about, in groups of four or more, gossiping and making all manner of remarks as each of the guests arrived. After we had been presented to her Majesty, and saluted the girls, we walked to the far end of the hall, where Gloucester, Buckingham, and a fellow by the name of Sir William Catesby, a lawyer, with whom I shall have to deal later on, were standing. The Prince was giving some instructions to the musicians as we came up, but when he saw us he turned, and in that voice, as smooth as the finest silk, he said:--"Ah! Bradley, my dear friend, I am delighted to see thee here this evening, and thee, Harleston. I have heard how swift were my messengers, and I assure you both that it shall be none the worse for you that it was so." We thanked his Grace for his pretty speech, in which, however, I could not help but detect some insincerity; but could not, at that time, imagine what his object could be--for this man ever did have one,--when he acted in this manner. However, I learned it later.