brought him this wretched supper, and it cut the duchess to the heart to
see him hunt about for coppers enough to pay for it. One day he seemed
to have exhausted his store, for he turned his purse upside down and
shook it, but not the smallest coin fell out.

This grieved her sorely, and she wept bitterly, thinking of the ease of
her other son, and resenting the injustice with which blind and cruel
Fortune had bestowed her gifts.

When she had dried her eyes sufficiently to be able to see the picture in
the mirror once more, she beheld a long low house by the side of which
there was a large space roofed over with lattice work. This was covered
by a luxuriant growth of fig-branches and grape-vine. The moon shed its
silver radiance over the leaves and stems, while beneath it a fire cast
its golden and purple lights on the house, the trellis roof, and the gay
folk supping under it.

Young men in strange garb sat at the small tables. Their faces were
wonderfully animated and gay. Before each one stood a long-necked bottle
wound with straw, cups were filled, emptied, waved aloft or clinked.
With every moment the eyes of the drinkers grew brighter, their gestures
freer and more lively; finally one of them sprang up on a table, he was
the handsomest of them all,--her own George, and he looked as if he were
in Paradise instead of on this earth, and had been blessed by a sight of
God and his Heavenly host. He spoke and spoke, while the others listened
without moving until he raised a large goblet and took such a long
draught that the duchess was frightened. Then what a wild shout the
others sent up! They jumped to their feet, as if possessed, and one of
them tossed his cup through the lattice work and vines overhead.