Frances and Nelly had chosen a table in a secluded corner of the private dining room, and were waiting somewhat impatiently when Betty went in to serve them.

“Will my ladies eat from table linen—­extra, sixpence?” asked Betty, bending her knee in what might have been called a perpendicular courtesy.  Had she been sure that her customers were of high rank, she would have saluted them with a low bow, omitting to mention the extra charge for the linen.  But as Frances and Nelly were not escorted by a gentleman, she was not sure of their station.

“Will we eat from table linen?” demanded Nelly, in apparent indignation.  “Now, damn the girl!  Just hear her!  From what else, in God’s name, hussy, should we eat?  From a trough?  And mind you, if there is a spot on it as large as my smallest finger nail, I’ll tear it to shreds!” She winked to Frances, perhaps to show Betty that she was only chaffing, for in all the world there was no kinder heart than Nelly Gwynn’s.

Betty at once concluded that her guests were great ladies, perhaps from Whitehall itself, for surely none save ladies of the highest or lowest rank would use the language that came so trippingly on Nelly’s tongue.  So Betty made a deep courtesy, smiled, and answered:—­

“Yes, my ladies, it shall be as spotless as a maid of honor’s character.  It cost five shillings the ell.”

“Is that the best you can do?” demanded Nelly, laughing despite herself at Betty’s reference to the maids of honor.  “Never in all my life have I eaten from anything cheaper than guinea linen, and I know I shall choke—­choke, I tell you!  Odds fish! this is terrible!” Then turning to Frances:  “But it serves us right, duchess, for leaving the palace.”

“Yes, your Highness,” returned Frances.  “But you insisted on coming to the place.”

Betty was almost taken off her feet!  A princess and a duchess!  So her third courtesy was nearly to the floor, as she asked:—­

“What will your Highness and your Grace have to eat?”

“A barrel of oysters, a lobster broiled—­make it two lobsters—­a dish of raw turnips, with oil, vinegar, and pepper, a bottle of canary, a bit of cheese, and a pot of tea.  But Lord!  I suppose you never heard of tea!  It’s a new drink, child, recently brought from China.”

“Yes, your Highness,” answered Betty, very proud that the Old Swan could furnish so new a beverage.  “We have some excellent tea of my father’s own importation.”

“Then fetch it, and in God’s name, be quick about it!  Doubtless you could be quick enough in running after a man!” said Nelly.

“In running away from him if I wanted to catch him,” answered Betty, casting down her eyes demurely, as she courtesied and left to give the order in the kitchen.

Nelly’s love of fun brought trouble before the dinner was over.

When Betty left her guests, she went to her father in the tap-room and told him that a princess and a duchess had honored his house, whereupon Pickering began to swell with pride.  As friends dropped in from time to time, he informed them that a princess and a duchess were waiting for their dinner in the small dining room, and followed up the extraordinary announcement in each case by asking proudly:—­