A Maid of Many Moods

mistress of the house was one Dame Blossom, a wholesome-looking woman who had passed her girlhood at Shottery, and remembered Darby and Debora when they were but babies

sister with him, she welcomed them with a hear

lt to Debora Thornbury. For then began a life so rich in enjoyment, so varied and full of new delights that she sometimes, when brushing that heavy hair of hers before the little copper mirror in the high room

ed each fresh impression with vivid interest and pleasure. There was a new sparkle in her ch

every detail of fashion and custom that he had not burdened himself with at the little half-way house. The hours he kept moreover were very late and uncertain, and this sorely troubled his sister. Still each morning he spoke so freely of the many gentlemen he had been with the evening before-at the Tabard-or the Falcon-or even the Devil's Tavern near Temple Bar-where Debora had gazed open-eyed at the flaunting sign of St. Dunstan tweaking the devil by the nose-indeed, all these places he mentioned so entirely as a matter of course, that she soon ceased to worry over the hou

was proud to be seen with her, and though he loved her for her own sweet sake, perhaps there was more than a tr

may be because they were acknowledged to be so strikingly alike that it pleased his fancy to have my lord this-and the French Count of that-the beaus and young bloods of the town

it, and where his little sister was concerned h

any of the players whom she knew so well by name, and this the girl thought passing strange. Further, he w

low me to decide these matters. Did I not take thee to Greenwich but yesterday to view the Queen's Plaisance, as the place is rightly named?-Methinks I can smell yet that faint scent of roses that so pervaded the place. Egad! 'tis not every lass hath luck enow to see the very rooms Her Majesty hath g

mouth set itself in a dangerously firm line; but Darby appeared not

Lord Bishop of Winchester! And further, thou hast walked with me again and again through Pimlico Garden when the very fashion of the city was abroad. Ah! and Nonsuch House! Hast forgotten Nonsuch House on London Bridge, and how we climbed the gilded stairway and went up into the cupola for a fair outlook

y heart, for there has not been a day o' fog since

tient gesture. "Thou dost know mightily well 't

isten to such childishness!" cried

xclaimed, her love

thine eyes when they ran up the red flag with the swan broidered upon it. Ay! and also when their trumpeter blew that ear

t a soft, quick tattoo with her

silence Darby again returne

en too much with us to make us vastly popular. Anon, I showed thee 'The Hope,' dost not remember the red-tiled roof of it? 'Tis a private theatre, an' marvellous comfortable, they tell me. An' thou has forgotten all those; thou surely canst bring to mind the morning we were in Shoreditch, how I stopped befo

light in his eyes and his

ower o' cold rain or an impromptu sprinkling of sleet on one, in critical moments of the play, hath disastrous effect. Come, thou surely hast not forgotten 'The Globe,' where we of the Lord

rt cutting inflection. "Hearts mercy! 'Tis not the outside o' the playhouses I desire to see, as thou dost understand-'tis the inside-where Master Shakespeare is and the g

in a point to call them so) who enter, are usually masked. I would not have thee

w! this did I hear thee saying over and over last night. So wonderful it was-and rarely

with slow, pretty movement, then lifted her face,

her, the sun burnishing the red-gold of her hair; but when she began to speak he forgot all e

r lost the words. It was the long soliloquy of the maid of Capulet in the potion scene. After she f

f them doth carry me away from myself. But," going over to Darby, "but, dear heart

e small window. He stood there q

poke, half coaxingly, half diffidently, altoge

part o' Julie

hath the sweetest voice for a girl's part of any o' us, fell suddenly ill. In an evil moment 'twas decided I might make shift to take the character, for none other in the Company com'th so near it in voice, they say, though Ned Shakespeare hath a pink and white face, comely enow for any girl. Beshrew me,

for thee, Darby," said the girl, softly

answered, pinching her ear light

y. Ah, well! I'd best whistle 'Begone dull care,' for 'twill be a good week before we give the people the new pl

clasping her hands about his arm. "Indeed," coaxingly, "tho

ething in his mind. With a fair measure of wisdom for one so eager she forebore qu

ven up all hope of any fa

assembles at eight of the morning, thou dost know; now I could take thee in earlier by an entrance I wot of, at Bla

she exclaimed. "W

ely been fitted. Now I will part these drapings ever so little, yet enough to give thee a full sweeping view o' the stage, an' if thou keep'st well to the back o' the box, Deb, thou wilt be as invisible to us a

her eyes gathered two great tears which rolled he

com'th a ball i' my throat, then a queer trembling, an' I all but cry. 'Tis vastly silly is't not, but 'tis just by reason o' being a gir

ick maid and mince giddily about in petticoats. I warrant thou'lt be poppy-red, though thou art h

way with him most fascinating. He doth act even at rehearsals as though 'twere all most deadly passionate reality, and this with only me

ered Debora, softly, "but for thee, an', yes,

old that even now he hath been reading lines from a wonderful strange history concerning a Jew of Venice, to a party of his friends-Ben Jonson and

girl, as she turned to leave the room. "O wilt take me

he answered, wa