Perfect silence honored the Hon. Samuel
Budd. The Mayor was nodding vigorous
approval, the jeering ones kept still,
and when after the last deep-toned word
passed like music from his lips the silence
held sway for a little while before the
burst of applause came. Every knight had
straightened in his saddle and was looking
very grave. Marston's eyes never left the
speaker's face, except once, when they
turned with an unconscious appeal, I
thought, to the downcast face of Blight--
whereat the sympathetic little sister seemed
close to tears. The Knight of the
Cumberland shifted in his saddle as though he
did not quite understand what was going
on, and once Mollie, seeing the eyes
through the mask-holes fixed on her,
blushed furiously, and little Buck grinned
back a delighted recognition. The Hon.
Sam sat down, visibly affected by his own
eloquence; slowly he wiped his face and
then he rose again.

``Your colors, Sir Knights,'' he said,
with a commanding wave of his truncheon,
and one by one the knights spurred forward
and each held his lance into the
grandstand that some fair one might tie