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When Knighthood Was in Flower - or, the Love Story of Charles Brandon and Mary Tudor the King's Sister, and Happening in the Reign of His August Majesty King Henry the Eighth by Charles Major
page 49 of 324 (15%)
"I will hazard ten crowns," said Mary quickly, for she loved a wager
and was a born gambler.

"Taken," said I.

"We will try him on both to-morrow night in my drawing-room," she
continued. "You bring him up, but tell no one. I will have Jane there
with her lute, which will not frighten you away, I know, and we will
try his step. I will have cards, too, and we shall see what he can do
at triumph. Just we four--no one else at all. You and Jane, the new
Duke of Suffolk and I. Oh! I can hardly wait," and she fairly danced
with joyous anticipation.

The thing had enough irregularity to give it zest, for while Mary
often had a few young people in her drawing-room, the companies were
never so small as two couples only, and the king and queen, to make up
for greater faults, were wonderful sticklers in the matter of little
proprieties.

The ten-crown wager, too, gave spice to it, but to do her justice she
cared very little for that. The princess loved gambling purely for
gambling's sake, and with her, the next best thing to winning was
losing.

When I went to my room that night, I awakened Brandon and told him of
the distinguished honor that awaited him.

"Well! I'll be"--but he did not say what he would "be." He always
halted before an oath, unless angry, which was seldom, but then
beware!--he had learned to swear in Flanders. "How she did fly at me
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