IV. of Scotland; so, among the womanly arts of the unhappy Katherine
of Arragon, it is mentioned that she could play at "cards and dyce."
(See Strutt: Games and Pastimes, Hones' edition, p. 327.) The
legislature was very anxious to keep these games sacred to the
aristocracy, and very wroth with 'prentices and the vulgar for
imitating the ruinous amusements of their betters.] The exceeding
stiffness, the solemn silence of this female circle, but little
accorded with the mood of the graceful visitor. The demoiselles
stirred not at his entrance, and Katherine quietly motioned him to a
seat at some distance.

"By your leave, fair lady," said Hastings, "I rebel against so distant
an exile from such sweet company;" and he moved the tabouret close to
the formidable chair of the presiding chieftainess.

Katherine smiled faintly, but not in displeasure.

"So gay a presence," she said, "must, I fear me, a little disturb
these learners."

Hastings glanced at the prim demureness written on each blooming
visage, and replied,--

"You wrong their ardour in such noble studies. I would wager that
nothing less than my entering your bower on horseback, with helm on
head and lance in rest, could provoke even a smile from one pair of
the twenty rosy lips round which, methinks, I behold Cupido hovering
in vain!"

The baroness bent her stately brows, and the twenty rosy lips were all