He must wait; wait until Joseph's return, so that he might spend his vengeance upon both together.
Patient had he been for eighteen years, confident that ere he died, a just and merciful God would give him this for which he lived and waited.
Yet now that the season was at hand; now upon the very eve of that for which he had so long been patient, a frenzy of impatience fretted him.
He drank deep that night, and through deep drinking his manner thawed--for in his cups it was not his to be churlish to friend or foe.
Anon Cynthia withdrew; next Kenneth, who went in quest of her.

Still Crispin sat on, and drank his host's health above his breath, and his perdition under it, till in the end Gregory, who never yet had found his master at the bottle, grew numb and drowsy, and sat blinking at the tapers.
Until midnight they remained at table, talking of this and that, and each understanding little of what the other said.

As the last hour of night boomed out through the great hall, Gregory spoke of bed.
"Where do I lie to-night ?" asked Crispin.
"In the northern wing," answered Gregory with a hiccough.
"Nay, sir, I protest," cried Galliard, struggling to his feet, and swaying somewhat as he stood.

"I'll sleep in the King's chamber, none other." "The King's chamber ?" echoed Gregory, and his face showed the confused struggles of his brain.

"What know you of the King's chamber ?" "That it faces the east and the sea, and that it is the chamber I love best." "What can you know of it since, I take it, you have never seen it!" "Have I not ?" he began, in a voice that was awful in its threatening calm.