but Christopher's face was bright with excitement. After a word or two
of apology they moved to their places. Mr. Carleton said grace, and as
they sat down the door behind from the kitchen opened, and the servants
came through with the pewter dishes.

Ralph was very silent at first; his mother sat by him almost as silent
as himself; the servants sprang about noiseless and eager to wait on
him; and Sir James and the chaplain did most of the conversation,
pleasant harmless talk about the estate and the tenants; but as supper
went on, and the weariness of the hot journey faded, and the talk from
the lower tables grew louder, Ralph began to talk a little more freely.

"Yes," he said, "the crowning went well enough. The people were quiet
enough. She looked very pretty in her robes; she was in purple velvet,
and her gentlemen in scarlet. We shall have news of her soon."

Sir James looked up sharply at his son. They were all listening
intently; and even a servant behind Ralph's chair paused with a silver
jug.

"Yes," said Ralph again with a tranquil air, setting down his Venetian
glass; "God has blessed the union already."

"And the King?" asked his father, from his black velvet chair in the
centre.

There fell a deeper silence yet as that name was mentioned. Henry
dominated the imagination of his subjects to an extraordinary degree, no
less in his heavy middle-age than in the magnificent strength and
capacity of his youth.