shook their heads with much gravity and wonder over the beautiful
Mistress Clorinda.




CHAPTER IV--Lord Twemlow's chaplain visits his patron's kinsman, and
Mistress Clorinda shines on her birthday night


Uncivilised and almost savage as her girlish life was, and unregulated by
any outward training as was her mind, there were none who came in contact
with her who could be blind to a certain strong, clear wit, and
unconquerableness of purpose, for which she was remarkable. She ever
knew full well what she desired to gain or to avoid, and once having
fixed her mind upon any object, she showed an adroitness and brilliancy
of resource, a control of herself and others, the which there was no
circumventing. She never made a blunder because she could not control
the expression of her emotions; and when she gave way to a passion, 'twas
because she chose to do so, having naught to lose, and in the midst of
all their riotous jesting with her the boon companions of Sir Jeoffry
knew this.

"Had she a secret to keep, child though she is," said Eldershawe, "there
is none--man or woman--who could scare or surprise it from her; and 'tis
a strange quality to note so early in a female creature."

She spent her days with her father and his dissolute friends, treated
half like a boy, half a fantastical queen, until she was fourteen. She
hunted and coursed, shot birds, leaped hedges and ditches, reigned at the