TWO MAIDS A-BROIDERING "Now a plague take all created things, Lady Kitty!" cried Mary Connynge, petulantly flinging down a silken pattern over which she had pretended to be engaged.

"There are devils in the skeins to-day.

I'll try no more with't." "Fie! For shame, Mary Connynge," replied Lady Catharine Knollys, reprovingly.

"So far from better temperance of speech, didst ever hear of the virtue of perseverance?
Now, for my own part--" "And what, for your own part?
Have I no eyes to see that thou'rt puttering over the same corner this last half hour?
What is it thou art making to-day ?" The Lady Catharine paused for a moment and held her embroidery frame away from her at arm's length, looking at it with brow puckering into a perplexed frown.
"I was working a knight," said she.

"A tall one--" "Yes, a tall one, with yellow hair, I warrant." "Why, so it was.