The cooks and kitchen-wenches were flighty with the grooms and men-servants, and little Mistress Clorinda, having a passion for horses and dogs, spent many an hour in the stables with the women who, for reasons of their own, were pleased enough to take her there as an excuse for seeking amusement for themselves.

She played in the kennels and among the horses' heels, and learned to use oaths as roundly as any Giles or Tom whose work was to wield the curry comb.

It was indeed a curious thing to hear her red baby mouth pour forth curses and unseemly words as she would at any one who crossed her.

Her temper and hot-headedness carried all before them, and the grooms and stable- boys found great sport in the language my young lady used in her innocent furies.

But balk her in a whim, and she would pour forth the eloquence of a fish-wife or a lady of easy virtue in a pot-house quarrel.