CHAPTER III--Wherein Sir Jeoffry's boon companions drink a toast


Her beauty of face, her fine body, her strength of limb, and great growth
for her age, would have pleased him if she had possessed no other
attraction, but the daring of her fury and her stable-boy breeding so
amused him and suited his roystering tastes that he took to her as the
finest plaything in the world.

He set her on the floor, forgetting his coursing, and would have made
friends with her, but at first she would have none of him, and scowled at
him in spite of all he did. The brandy by this time had mounted to his
head and put him in the mood for frolic, liquor oftenest making him
gamesome. He felt as if he were playing with a young dog or marking the
spirit of a little fighting cock. He ordered the servants back to their
kitchen, who stole away, the women amazed, and the men concealing grins
which burst forth into guffaws of laughter when they came into their hall
below.

"'Tis as we said," they chuckled. "He had but to see her beauty and find
her a bigger devil than he, and 'twas done. The mettle of her--damning
and flogging him! Never was there a finer sight! She feared him no more
than if he had been a spaniel--and he roaring and laughing till he was
like to burst."

"Dost know who I am?" Sir Jeoffry was asking the child, grinning himself