Still she had taught us to dance and make a bow.

Her presence had softened our manners; and of late we had gained something from the frank companionship of Louis de Pavannes, a Huguenot whom the Vicomte had taken prisoner at Moncontour and held to ransom.

We were not, I think, mere clownish yokels.
But we were shy.

We disliked and shunned strangers.

And when old Gil appeared suddenly, while we were still chewing the melancholy cud of Kit's announcement, and cried sepulchrally, "M.