'Oh, you ARE there!' said the youth, turning.

'I am glad you acknowledge my presence,' said Richard, not the
better pleased with his new acquaintance that his speech and
behaviour had an easy tone of superiority, which, if indefinably
felt by the home-bred lad, was not therefore to be willingly
accorded. His easy carriage, his light step, his still shoulders and
lithe spine, indicated both birth and training.

'Just the night for a serenade,' he went on, heedless of Richard's
remark, '--bright, but not too bright; cloudy, but not too cloudy.'

'Sir!' said Richard, amazed at his coolness.

'Oh, you want to quarrel with me!' returned the youth. 'But it takes
two to fight as well as to kiss, and I will not make one to-night. I
know who you are well enough, and have no quarrel with you, except
indeed it be true--as indeed it must, for Dorothy tells me so--that
you have turned roundhead as well as your father.'

'What right have you to speak so familiarly of mistress Dorothy?'
said Richard.

'It occurs to me,' replied Scudamore, airily, 'that I had better ask
you by what right you haunt her house at midnight. But I would not
willingly cross you in cold blood. I wish you good a night, and
better luck next time you go courting.'

The moon swam from behind a cloud, and her over ripe and fading
light seemed to the eyes of Richard to gather upon the figure before