Yet I, who heard something of what passed, had much ado not to step in and bid her pay no heed to homage that was empty if not dishonouring.
Suddenly the Duke turned round and called to me.
"Mr Dale," he cried, "there needed but one thing to bind us closer, and here it is! For you are, I learn, the friend of Mistress Quinton, and I am the humblest of her slaves, who serve all her friends for her sake." "Why, what would your Grace do for my sake ?" asked Barbara.
"What wouldn't I ?" he cried, as if transported.

Then he added rather low, "Though I fear you're too cruel to do anything for mine." "I am listening to the most ridiculous speeches in the world for your Grace's sake," said Barbara with a pretty curtsey and a coquettish smile.
"Is love ridiculous ?" he asked.

"Is passion a thing to smile at?
Cruel Mistress Barbara!" "Won't your Grace set it in verse ?" said she.
"Your grace writes it in verse on my heart," said he.
Then Barbara looked across at me, it might be accidentally, yet it did not appear so, and she laughed merrily.

It needed no skill to measure the meaning of her laugh, and I did not blame her for it.

She had waited for years to avenge the kiss that I gave Cydaria in the Manor Park at Hatchstead; but was it not well avenged when I stood humbly, in deferential silence, at the back while his Grace the Duke sued for her favour, and half the Court looked on?
I will not set myself down a churl where nature has not made me one; I said in my heart, and I tried to say to her with my eyes, "Laugh, sweet mistress, laugh!" For I love a girl who will laugh at you when the game runs in her favour.
The Duke fell to his protestations again, and Carford still listened with an acquiescence that seemed strange in a suitor for the lady's hand.